This article engages Philippe Bourgois's analysis of the continuum of violence from wartime to post-war El Salvador in Ethnography (2:1). Acknowledging the utility of the violence model proposed by Bourgois, it contends that a general theory of structural relations and everyday violence requires mediating concepts in order to be usefully applied in any concrete situation, and that Bourgois has not supplied them. As a consequence, Bourgois's application of the model to Salvadoran wartime and post-war reality is excessively mechanical. Study of the unfavorable peace settlement, which preserved unequal structural relations, is probably necessary in order to shed light on the high levels of post-war violence. The shortcomings of Bourgois's analysis is further related to an over-reliance on personal narrative, discussed here in terms of the `testimonial function'.

Violence in El Salvador A Rejoinder to Philippe Bourgois's `The Power of Violence in War and Peace'

TIP 59: Improving Cultural Competence

There is a perception that drug use is a serious and growing problem to be solved by medicine, social work and drug enforcement agencies. This thesis takes a critical standpoint again such populist views and interprets drug use as one of any number of normal activities that people engage. This qualitative research utilising a bricoleur ethnographic methodology focuses on the drug taking of non-treatment seeking illegal drug users. The data reveals that they manage several social identities and the potential stigma of being discovered as an illicit user of illegal drugs utilising several strategies to remain intentionally unseen. The thesis explores how and in what way socially competent drug users differ from visible treatment seeking drug users. In order to develop this understanding, several gatekeepers were identified and within their social networks the participants were recruited into this research. The participants (n=24) were recruited from a wide range of age groups (21-52) and geographical locations within Scotland. One to one interviews, a focus group, and several pair bonded partners were interviewed together providing rich sources of data. Interviews were transcribed and analysed thematically from a social constructionist perspective. The findings illuminate the ways in which the intentionally unseen identify and manage risks from drugs, drugs policy and the potential shame and stigma were their hidden social worlds revealed. The practical implications of the results of this thesis are explored and recommendations for future research are discussed.

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The intentionally unseen: exploring the illicit drug use of non-treatment seeking drug users in Scotland

Emotions have historically played a marginal role in many arenas of anthropological analysis, often limited to describing certain aspects of research informants' lives, or explaining the ethnograph...

Emotional overlap and the analytic potential of emotions in anthropology

Purpose




The purpose of this paper is to explore the hidden social worlds of competent clandestine users of drugs controlled within the confines of the UK Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, which now includes NPS substances. The authors explore how and in what way socially competent drug users differ from others who are visible to the authorities as criminals by criminal justice bureaucracies and known to treatment agencies as defined problem drug users.




Design/methodology/approach




This qualitative research utilises a bricoleur ethnographic methodology considered as a critical, multi-perspectival, multi-theoretical and multi-methodological approach to inquiry.




Findings




This paper challenges addiction discourses and, drawing upon empirical evidence, argues the user of controlled drugs should not be homogenised. Using several key strategies of identity management, drug takers employ a range of risk awareness and risk neutralisation techniques to protect self-esteem, avoid social affronts and in maintaining untainted identities. The authors present illicit drug use as one activity amongst other social activities that (some) people, conventionally, pursue. The findings from this study suggest that punitive drug policy, which links drug use with addiction, crime and antisocial behaviour, is inconsistent with the experience of the participants.




Research limitations/implications




Due to the small sample size (n=24) employed, the possibility that findings can be generalised is rendered difficult. However, generalisation was never an objective of the research; the experiences of this hidden population are deeply subjective and generalising findings and applying them to other populations would be an unproductive endeavour. While the research attempted to recruit an equal number of males and females to this research, gendered analysis was not a primary objective of this research. However, it is acknowledged that future research would greatly benefit from such a gendered focus.




Practical implications




The insights from the study may be useful in helping to inform future policy discourse on issues of drug use. In particular, the insights suggest that a more nuanced perspective should be adopted. This perspective should recognise the non-deviant identities of many drug users in the contemporary era, and challenge the use of a universally stigmatising discourse and dominance of prohibition narratives.




Social implications




It is envisaged that this paper will contribute to knowledge on how socially competent users of controlled drugs identify and manage the risks of moral, medical and legal censure.




Originality/value




The evidence in this paper indicates that drug use is an activity often associated with non-deviant, productive members of the population. However, the continuing dominance of stigmatising policy discourses often leads to drug users engaging in identity concealment within the context of a deeply capitalist Western landscape.

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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: The Strange Case of the Two Selves of Clandestine Drug Users in Scotland

Scotty injected his last drops of heroin into a scarred vein running along his outer forearm. On this chilly, late winter afternoon, I had been watching him, his street partner Jim, and another homeless heroin addict, Leo, share a $20 bag of black tar heroin in their homeless encampment/shooting gallery. For the past year, as part of an HIV-AIDS prevention study, I have been spending much of my time with a network of heroin addicts who live under a stretch of San Francisco's downtown freeways. As I was walking toward the back of the camp where another four men were fixing heroin, out of the corner of my eye I saw Scotty fall to the ground. As he jerked in the dirt, his eyes rolled back and asphyxiated gasps rattled from inside his throat. "Oh my God," I thought as I ran to his convulsing body, "he's gonna die!" What was I supposed to do? Call 911 from the bushes under the freeway? Would Scotty stay alive while I dragged him over the ten-foot-high chain-link fence surrounding our camp to an anonymous stretch of sidewalk? Would I even be able to find a functioning pay phone? I must have said something about calling 911, because I vaguely heard Jim reassuring me, "No, don't. He's okay." Scotty was clearly not okay, but, from the perspective of the addicts in the shooting gallery, the paramedic authorities and the police who would follow them were even less okay. At a total loss, I massaged Scotty's chest, hoping to somehow relax his breathing. Fortunately, at this point Jim took more coherent control. He had me grab Scotty's arms and pull them above his head, jamming him into an upright position. Following the gestures from a long-forgotten junior high school CPR training session, but having no faith in their efficacy, I placed my knee in the center of Scotty's back to arch his torso and maybe open his clogged respiratory system. Jim was massaging Scotty's shoulders, while Leo, who had woken up

Charles Pearson

Papers

Hope to Die a Dope Fiend