06.03.2015 | Associate professor torsten Kolind

On 29 September – 1 October 2015, the Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research hosts the international conference: Ethnic minority youth, drugs, gangs and street life. The Centre welcomes researchers from a wide spectra of disciplines to participate in the conference.

Today, issues and concerns about immigration have become increasingly contentious themes in public and political debates. Within these debates, ethnic minority youth have been pointed out as particularly problematic because of their seeming involvement in youth gangs, drug dealing and serious crime. Such developments have been identified as a particularly troubling reflection of the difficulties of successfully integrating immigrant populations.

However, in spite of increased concerns, media attention, and law enforcement initiatives directed at ethnic minority youth groups and drug sales and drug use, only limited research has been conducted in the Nordic countries. However, recent developments within sociology, anthropology and cultural studies have raised important theoretical issues concerning the appropriateness of contemporary social science classifications of ethnic divisions.

These developments have attempted to re-conceptualize ethnicity within post-modernist thought, and contemporary debates of the usefulness of such concepts as the “new ethnicities” are hotly debated. Such theories have been developed in opposition to more culturally essentialist notions of ethnic identity as unitary, fixed and unchanging.

The approach of the conference is broad and inclusive. We welcome all researchers, regardless of discipline, who have an interest in studying ethnic minority youth, and especially those conducting work on the role of drug consumption, ethnic identity, youth gangs, notions of masculinity and femininity, street cultures, resistance, drug policy and drug sales. In doing so, we aim to encourage developments not only in the field of drug research but also within ethnicity and ethnic minority studies.

Confirmed keynote speakers:

 

• Craig Reinarman
• Jody Miller
• Philip Lalander
• Sune Qvotrup
• Gestur Gudmundsson
• Karen Joe-Laidler

 

See more about the conference at: www.crf.au.dk/ethnicity

For further information you can contact:
Torsten Kolind
Associate professor
Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences - Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research
Bartholins Allé 10
building 1322, room 220
8000 Aarhus C
Denmark
tk.crf@psy.au.dk
Direct phone: (+45) 87165767