Anthropological reflections on youth drug use research in Australia: what we don't know and how we should find out

Abstract

This paper outlines an anthropological/sociological view of youth drug use which complements the existing research paradigm. The limitations of the existing paradigm are identified and an argument is presented for the inclusion of ethnography as a fruitful research method and for a greater focus on the social context of drug use by youth. Finally, the implications of this re-direction for future research and prevention are outlined.

The practise and practice of Bourdieu: The application of social theory to youth alcohol research

“…A seminal paper published some years ago in the Drug and Alcohol Review (Moore 1990) 'Despite calls from within and without psychology to find a place for the social and cultural context in theories of human development, such a context rarely finds adequate expression in psychological work, and when it does, it appears 'added on'; the social and cultural environment is seen to 'shape' or 'colour' processes seen as being 'internal' to humans' (Moore 2002 p 16). …”

Opening up the Cul-de-Sac of Youth Drug Studies: A Contribution to the Construction of Some Alternative Truths

“…I conclude by arguing that those from outside the dominant drug-research disciplines of epidemiology, medicine and psychology must continually press their case for the relevance ofnew ideas in order to contribute to a more open and theoretically dynamic field. KEY WORDS: Youth, drug use, anthropology, developmental psychology, history, sociology. In an article published in the Drug and Alcohol Review (Moore, 1990), I reviewed the Australian research literature on alcohol and other drug use among young people. I reached four conclusions about trends in this research, aspects of which also featured in the research literature from the United States and the United Kingdom.…”

Producing Pleasure, Minimizing Harm

“…Performative pleasure is at times both productive and pleasurable and perhaps at other times neither. That these assemblages come into and out of existence emphasizes the necessity of seeing the chemical-using body as multiple (Malins, 2004) and chemical use as collective (Hunt et al, 2009; Moore, 1990). Notions of productivity or pleasure are also multiple, collective, and negotiated.…”

“…The relationality and temporality of my participants’ perceptions of risk challenge the pharmacological notion that risk is inherent to a chemical and the epidemiological notion that risk is inherent to the environment (Rhodes, 1997). Indeed, a number of authors have already questioned pharmacological or epidemiological perspectives in AOD and harm reduction research (Keane, 2011; Lunnay, Ward, & Borlagdan, 2011; Moore, 1990, 2002, 2008).…”