The moral economy of heroin in ‘Austerity Britain’

This article presents the findings of an ethnographic exploration of heroin use in a disadvantaged area of the United Kingdom. Drawing on developments in continental philosophy as well as debates around the nature of social exclusion in the late-modern west, the core claim made here is that the cult...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Wakeman, Stephen (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2016
In: Critical criminology
Year: 2016, Volume: 24, Issue: 3, Pages: 363-377
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Keywords:
Heroin
Heroin User
Instrumental Function
Moral Economy
Social Exclusion
Description
Summary:This article presents the findings of an ethnographic exploration of heroin use in a disadvantaged area of the United Kingdom. Drawing on developments in continental philosophy as well as debates around the nature of social exclusion in the late-modern west, the core claim made here is that the cultural systems of exchange and mutual support which have come to underpin heroin use in this locale - that, taken together, form a ‘moral economy of heroin’ - need to be understood as an exercise in reconstituting a meaningful social realm by, and specifically for, this highly marginalised group. The implications of this claim are discussed as they pertain to the fields of drug policy, addiction treatment, and critical criminological understandings of disenfranchised groups.
Item Description:Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 376-377
ISSN:1572-9877
DOI:10.1007/s10612-015-9312-5