5th Global Conference
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Mansfield College, Oxford
Conference Programme, Abstracts & Papers
Session 8 - Social Perspectives
on Alcohol and other Drugs
Chair: Marlene Benjamin
Addiction as a Disease; Identity and Normality
Kimmo
Saaristo
Department of Sociology, University of Helsinki, Finland
A disease concept of
addiction is often espoused by different rehabilitation programmes. In
this paper, I’ll use the emprical data gathered
in a residential treatment institution in Eastern Finland. Also there,
the treatment is based on the idea of addiction as a disease, and for
the “inmates” accepting this is the first step to recovery.
At the same time, in order to become clean from drugs, there must be
fundamental changes in the addict´s beliefs and behaviours – in
fact, there must be a change of life altogether.
In this kind of context, then, I´ll scrutinize the narrative process
of constructing a new identity. Old habits must be rejected, a former
life of using drugs must be defined as destructive and biased. A new
Self is shaped, a Self able to live a ‘normal life’. However,
a paradox becomes evident: Firstly, using drugs and being an addict is
usually considerd as something abnormal (by society at large). But, secondly,
in the process of recovery a drug-addict must accept his/her addiction,
and that the addiction is a chronic disease. According to this view,
then, the normality of a “recovering addict” is always based
on “abnormality”. In my presentation, these issues of normality
and abnormality, health and addiction, and the complex connections with
these concepts are scrutinized. Especially the construction of new identity
as a part of and as a result of the treatment is considered. It is also
argued, that these questions of normality and disease are in fact more
general: any kind of serious illness usually requires “identity
work” of some kind.
The paper is a part of an on going research (funded by the Academy of
Finland). The emprical material of the study and of this paper consists
of diaries and life stories (autobiographies of written by addicts themselves)
of the addicts. The data has been collected in Mikkel Community which
is a therapeutic community located near the city of Mikkeli, Finland,
and established in 1998.
"I use drugs, but I am not a drug addict".
How Heroin and Cocaine Users
make Sense of their Practice as a Healthy Behaviour
Maria
Caiata Zufferey
Health Care Communication Laboratory,
Università della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, Switzerland
The threshold
between illness and health has always been variable through the centuries,
but in the actual context this frontier is changing particularly quickly
and significantly: some conditions which were usually considered as normal
have become pathological; on the other hand, some situations that were
previously considered as pathological are now regarded as normal. The
case of drug use - and more in particular the case of heroin and cocaine
use - is exemplary to illustrate this situation.
Up to 1980s, the healthy
behaviour in drug use was abstinence, whereas any heroin and cocaine
use was seen as a symptom of a pathological condition. Nowadays, the
situation has greatly changed in many European countries. For social,
political, cultural and scientific reasons, drug use is no longer straightaway
regarded as a problematic behaviour: drug use could be both the sign
of a pathological condition or an ordinary practice. Actually, everything
depends on the sense given to the drug experience. This process of making
sense in order to redefine what is normal and what is not could be called legitimation.
This paper explores the concept of legitimation by using the results
of a qualitative research on drug addiction recovery which has recently
been realized in Switzerland. Firstly, the factors which have lead to
change perception in drug use are examined. Secondly, it is shown how
ancient drug addicts - who have become occasional users - make sense
of their path in order to persuade themselves and their environment that
they have really recovered, even if they continue using drugs. Thirdly,
the supports which are necessaries for the legitimation process are illustrated.
Innocent Bystanders: Reading Alcohol and
Violence in Liverpool
Andy
Ruddock
Liverpool John Moores University,
School of Media and Creative Arts,
Liverpool, UNited Kingdom
This paper argues that alcohol awareness interventions
should be informed by knowledge of how audiences frame drink-related
risks. Framing
is in turn related to the way people draw on media resources to narrate
health information.
Recent work on public health and information campaigns
stresses that people only act on issues when they feel their relevance.
(Green et al., 2002; Mohammad and Thombre, 2005; Kitzinger, 2004; Pillsbury
et al., 2005). Consequently it is important to understand what
alcohol "means" to
drinkers. For example, drinking can be framed in both personal
and collective terms; we can look at the damage drinkers do to themselves
(rendering themselves vulnerable to disease or assault) or to others
(anti-social behaviour, the long term burden on the health system).
Scholars
have suggested that many of these frames will be the product of long-term
engagement with a variety of media (e.g. Morgan, 1989). Many
have pointed to the highly ambiguous messages that circulate around alcohol. (Andsager
et al, 2002; Chen et al., 2005; Collins et al., 2003; Dorsett & Dickerson,
2004; Ellickson et al., 2005; Fleming et al., 2004; Mastro & Atkins,
2002; Pinkleton et al., 2001; Pitt et al, 2005; Ryan and Hoen’ner,
2004;Unger et al., 2003; Zwarun, 2005). Using survey data
gathered as part of an alcohol-awareness campaign in Liverpool, I will
argue that this ambiguity is reflected in a general framing of alcohol
as a violence issue. While young drinkers acknowledge the dangers
of excess, prioritising the threat of violence also allows them to absent
themselves from national concerns over binge drinking. The main
risk associated with drinking is assault; the probability of being either
aggressor or victim is remote; ergo, most respondents felt concerned
but not involved in social concerns over alcohol. The implications
for future audience research are discussed.