Bruce Alexander, professor emeritus of psychology at Simon Fraser University, will talk about the root causes of addiction on Monday at York.
Alexander’s talk “The Globalization of Addiction” will take place Monday, Nov. 9 at 1:30pm in N203 Ross Building, Keele campus.
Right: Bruce Alexander
By examining the root causes of addiction, Alexander will show that they lie less in biology than in the dislocating effects of globalizing free market societies. On this basis he will argue that an effective response to the worldwide addiction problem must include social and political changes that support the integration of people into more stable and meaningful communities.
Alexander has researched drugs and addiction at Simon Fraser University for the last 30 years. He is the author of The Globalisation of Addiction: A Study in Poverty of the Spirit (Oxford University Press, 2008) and Peaceful Measures: Canada's Way Out of the War on Drugs (University of Toronto Press, 1990).
He is also the winner of the 2007 Nora and Ted Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy at Simon Fraser University.
“The Globalization of Addiction” is sponsored by The Health & Society Program in collaboration with the School of Health Policy & Management in the Faculty of Health and the York Institute for Health Research in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.