1,721,020 research outputs found
‘Waiting for the delivery man’:Temporalities of addiction, withdrawal, and the pleasures of drug time in a darknet cryptomarket
No full textIn this chapter, the author examines the way in which the purchase and delivery infrastructure of darknet cryptomarkets shapes the experience of opiate drug use and dependence. It uses the concept of social time and posits that the illicit drug distribution system reshapes two temporal dimensions shaping the experience of drug users. There is the experience of time located in the pharmacology of the drug and in the body of the drug user, which evokes experiences of withdrawal and dependence. Then there is the socio-technical embedding of the delivery system and governance structures which support or impinge on the autonomy of the user. This ‘drug time’ is both a benefit and a cost of engaging in cryptomarket use. The market infrastructure can give users the opportunities to more carefully manage their drug time, while also creating new risks of non-delivery that can sharpen experiences of dope sickness. The author concludes that the growing professionalisation, digitisation, and commercialisation of the drug market increasingly embed drug time in material infrastructures mediated through technical systems
Caught between desire and danger: power, agency and emotion work in American college women's heterosexual lives
No full textThis empirical study, grounded in a feminist epistemology, analyses young, American college
women’s reflections on their heterosexual lives. The context of these women’s heterosexual
experiences provides a backdrop to explore how the phenomena of power, agency, and selfwork emerge through and interplay with heterosexuality. Building on existing research on
various aspects of women’s heterosexual lives (Fine, 1988; Holland et al, 1998; Tolman, 2002;
Jackson and Cram, 2003; Powell, 2010; Beres and Farvid, 2010; Wade, 2017; Pickens and
Braun, 2018), this study examines the ways that young women adhere to restrictive ideologies
which dictate rules as to how to be a traditionally feminine woman and how heterosex ought
to be experienced; but also how their accounts are able to, temporarily, rupture these oppressive
power structures, as the women critically consider their capacity for agency and freedom.
The study is based on 5 focus group interviews with 18 women at a large, southern public
university in the United States. This thesis explores how nuances of pleasure and danger as well
as agency and structure transpire through the young women’s narratives of heterosexuality,
building up a complex picture of their experiences. In extending a Foucauldian (1978, 1980)
understanding of discourse and power, this study will argue that the young women still have to
navigate pervasive heterosexual discourses which dictate appropriate heterosexual behaviour.
At the same time, this thesis critically analyses the women’s claims to sexual empowerment and
agency – which suggest there is some room for circumventing these discourses albeit only briefly
– from a feminist perspective.
Finally, this research draws on Hochschild’s (1979, 1983) conceptualisation of emotional labour
to argue that the young women engage in a form of emotional labour, or emotion work, in
order to maintain their heterosexual relationships and their emotions (and those of others) and
to manage certain sexual situations, including those involving questions of risk and safety. Thus,
this thesis addresses two interrelated problems that are prominent in the literature: the first is
that feminist theory aims to provide women the conceptual tools to understand their
heterosexual lives, but often either reduces their experiences to structural oppression or a vague
liberal view of empowerment. Neither of these fully grapple with the challenges and
opportunities for change that women face in heterosexual encounters. Secondly, the women
interviewed often rely on strategies based on linguistic interactions and emotion work to
manage their heterosexual relationships and a coherent sense of self. Women’s heterosexuality
as explored in this thesis is considered a complex contradiction; the study concludes that young
women are, on the one hand, able to articulate their sexual desires in an individualised sense
but that acting out these pleasures with a partner proves difficult, suggesting that progress of
sexual freedom remains intertwined with the intricate constraints of old
Questioning mentalities of governance: a history of power relations among the Roma in Romania
No full textThe thesis explains the socioeconomic differences among the Roma through a
historical exploration of the relations established between Roma and significant
Others at local, regional, and central levels in different, overlapping spheres of power
(state, politics, religion, informal economy). Through a historical-ethnographic
analysis of difference and power struggles, the thesis seeks to bring the political
aspects of Roma lives back into the discourses of empowerment which are highly
depoliticized by both the state and transnational neo-liberal governance (World
Bank, UNDP, EU etc.). It is largely an explanation of transformations undergone by
two Roma groups in Romania who experienced utterly different living conditions
(while some got ’poorer’, the others became more affluent) in the period from
socialism to post-socialism.
The qualitative analysis, based on 7-months of ethnographic fieldwork,
overcomes the flaws of policy-oriented research based primarily on statistics. The
latter is produced by state and transnational development actors and ignores
qualitative differences between Roma groups, the context of Romanian and Eastern
European transformations (e.g. clientelism, informal economy, neopatrimonial state)
and constitutes ’identities’ (’the poor’, ’the marginal’, ’the vulnerable’) through
which the Roma are governed and maintained in a subordinate position. These
symbolic categories are used as part of a larger neoliberal problematization of
governance called ’social integration’, which constitutes itself as a ’regime of truth’
and follows an economic rationality which reproduces the status quo and does not
necessarily empower the Roma.
In addition, these ’regimes of enunciations’ are adopted un-reflexively as
objects of study in social science and Romani studies. Distancing itself from these
academic and policy practices, my comparative historical ethnography of power
relations and discursive practices among the Roma challenges and brings a
reconsideration of the current mentality of governance as social integration.
Furthermore, my thesis constitutes an important contribution to Romani
studies by 1) challenging a unilateral perspective directed by political agendas, and
2) producing reflexivity in relation to the object of study. It indicates that the historical study of power struggles as “an ascending analysis of power” (Foucault
1980: 99) is more beneficial in terms of empowerment than the study of predefined
themes of governance (e.g. poverty and marginalization). The Roma continuously
negotiate their relations with the Others in interaction with an uncertain
socioeconomic environment, and these struggles constitute mechanisms of
transformation in their lives.
My thesis thus reveals different interactions Roma have had within and across
spheres of power struggle (economy, state, politics, religion), which suggest an
explanation for the two Roma groups’ different living conditions. A ‘mobile’ or a
‘sedentary’ interaction with the socialism-to-postsocialism socioeconomic
transformations provided opportunities or restrictions for the improvement of the
Roma’s material living conditions. While a ‘mobile’ and trans-local approach was
adopted by Caldarars, a ‘sedentary’, localized socioeconomic practice was
experienced as a restriction by the Romanianized Gypsies. Although these ‘patterns’
largely correspond to the groups studied, there was a variation in terms of mobility
and wealth within both. Nevertheless, the mobile-sedentary distinction is relevant as
it shows different ways of governance. While a trans-local mobile approach with low
levels of subjection to state governance worked as a form of self-governance, a local
‘navigation’ of limited field of possibilities restricted access to better living
conditions and increased the subjection to state governance.
My thesis also draws attention to possible sources of empowerment (Roma politics)
which are blocked by particular transformations of state and politics (patronage
politics and political patronage), or translated by the state into the language of ‘social
integration’ (e.g. Pentecostalism as self-governance). To sum up, I consider that my
thesis undertakes a re-evaluation of the existent problematization of social
integration and constitutes a reflexive knowledge base for the support of genuine
forms of empowerment among the Roma
Taking a ‘leap of faith’ to migrate: exploring UK approaches to anti-human trafficking
No full textHuman trafficking is an international phenomenon that has been given more attention by governments, law enforcement, and NGOs as the world has continued to globalise. As a result, numerous combative human trafficking programmes have been developed to address the issue. Documenting trafficking is particularly challenging. The actual process of human trafficking and exploitation remains hidden, despite there being public awareness of the phenomenon. This has presented challenges for anti-human trafficking practitioners, especially regarding victim identification processes. International charities and NGOs perceive the UK government as a global leader in responding to human trafficking, mainly because of the passing of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, which was seen as ‘ground- breaking’ legislation.
Likewise, the UK government views itself as a global leader and regularly announces its commitment to preventing modern slavery and human trafficking in Parliament and international forums. At the same time, the UK introduced what has come to be known as the ‘hostile environment’ in 2012, a set of policies that demonstrated a commitment to reducing migration, to make life in the UK as difficult as possible for migrants. As a result, potential victims of trafficking and victims of trafficking have been criminalised and denied fundamental human rights.
A primary goal of this thesis is to explore the relationship between the UK’s commitments to restrictive migration and the reduction of human trafficking and exploitation. Despite the UK’s commitments to anti-human trafficking and exploitation, the immigration system is not only flawed but has been purposefully designed to make migrants and potential victims of trafficking vulnerable to harm. The UK’s environment for migrants and how this has impacted anti-human trafficking approaches has demonstrated that there is not only a ‘right kind’ of migrant but also a ‘right kind’ of victim. The thesis focuses particularly on the role of migrant decision-making in informing understandings of human trafficking as they relate to anti-human trafficking approaches. In doing so, the thesis draws upon structural violence theory through the lens of risk to examine four anti-human trafficking approaches used in the UK: the organised crime approach, the ‘illegal’ migration approach, the moral side of the human rights approach, and the labour side of the human rights approach.
Based on semi-structured interviews with practitioners and hopeful migrants, as well as non-participant observation, the overall argument is that the organised crime, ‘illegal’ migration, and the moral side of the human rights approaches to anti-human trafficking enable the criminalisation of victims and potential victims of trafficking. Thus, this thesis deems these approaches to be ineffective as anti-human trafficking approaches. The thesis argues that the labour side of the human rights approach is the most suitable approach for engaging with the lived experience of potential victims and victims of trafficking, as well as the structural factors that contribute to exploitation. The thesis further argues that all anti- human trafficking approaches would benefit from the knowledge of the role of a ‘leap of faith’ in migrant decision-making when considering victim identification processes.
This research has revealed new findings regarding how risk is understood and acted upon by hopeful migrants in their decision-making processes and has contributed unique insight into how the narrative of the ‘ideal victim’ interacts with the UK’s hostile environment. In particular, the thesis’ engagement with the notion of a ‘leap of faith’ contributes to how ‘grey zone’ decision-making plays out in reality, which are decisions that people are forced into due to their experiences of structural violence. This thesis fills a gap within the existing body of literature on anti-human trafficking regarding how definitional discrepancies are practically applied through anti-human trafficking approaches, such as the impact of the coercion/consent debate in practice
Pimpin’ ain’t easy? The lives of pimps involved in street prostitution in the United States of America
No full textThe pimp serves as an iconic ghetto hero who stands in street cultures as a figure that
represents defiance, anti-establishment angst, and victorious criminality (Funches & Marriott
2002; Horton-Stallings, 2003). The American pimp has been brought into mainstream
American culture through 1960’s literature, 1970’s Blaxploitation films, 1980’s hip hop and
more recently, documentaries, films, books, music and television. The word ‘pimp’ has found
its way into mainstream usage and popular caricatures of the pimp can be found in everything
from Halloween costumes to ‘pimp and ho’ themed college parties. Despite being highly
visible within mainstream culture, this character is still enigmatic as pimps are an underresearched
population. Thus this thesis aims to uncover and unveil the lives and experiences
of pimps involved in illegal prostitution to produce a more panoramic understanding of
prostitution and an unexplored segment of major players within it.
This thesis investigates the experiences and narratives of pimps involved in illegal,
predominately street, prostitution in the USA. This research project stands to offer in-depth
insight into the experiences of pimps in the United States within this unique subcultural
context. In order to fill that literature gap, this research interviewed pimps and gathered data
that explored how and why individuals become pimps, their personal histories, how they
maintain their position as pimps, how pimps pimp, and the motivations for exit and/or
retirement from The Game (the world of prostitution and pimping). More than just a
managerial position, the role of the pimp also embraces a lifestyle with special rules, fashions
and activities that create a unique and complex underground, criminal community. Rather
than just presenting pimps as violent exploiters or ghetto heroes, this thesis examined the
language of pimping, their orientation to their roles, the relationship between pimping and the
surrounding communities and mainstream society, and explored this criminal career as a
social role as well as career.
With their childhood experiences of life in American ghettos leading to regular
exposure to pimps and favorable impressions of illicit, underground careers, respondents
came to ‘choose’ pimping as their career trajectory in their teens. Once dedicated to becoming
pimps, many pimps underwent training with older pimps and later gained acceptance within
the street community to earn their positions and status as pimps. When established within The
Game, they started to practice ‘pimpology’ (pimp ideology) and to firmly establish their skills
and methods of pimping. Two substantive chapters within this thesis are dedicated to
addressing pimpology: pimpology covers the core processes, social connections and methods
of management that are vital for a pimps success and survival in The Game. The aim of these
chapters is to explore how pimps function as individuals, with the women who work for them,
within their peer networks, and within their communities while they are actively pimping.
And finally, exit from pimping will be explored. Issues such as age, exhaustion, family,
health, drug addiction, trauma, imprisonment, law enforcement crackdowns and social
betrayal all also act as further incentives for pimps to ‘hang up their pimp hat.’
This research has uncovered new themes and trends within the narratives of this
hidden, underground subcultural population and offers great insights into the ‘career cycles’
of pimps. This project stands to fill a major gap within prostitution research as current
literature lacks the perspectives and voices of pimps themselves. Within this research, a
nuanced approach offers a unique view of the pimp and their complex roles and relationships
within The Game. As an understudied population, pimps have rarely been the focus of
academic inquiry; thus this research stands to contribute new perspectives, insights and data
on a population that has remained enigmatic and well hidden from academic exploration for
decades
Doing drugs policy: narratives of participation in the development of a critical drug theory
No full textIntroduction It is a well-documented and a historical fact that human beings have ingested certain substances in order to change their perceptions of reality for centuries, if not millennia (RSA, 2007; Nutt, 2015; Bancroft, 2009, ch.2; Bennet & Holloway, 2010, ch.2). However, it was not until the beginning of the twentieth century that a serious effort was made to outlaw certain drugs for use other than medical, through international and national conventions and frameworks. The regulation of certain drugs has resulted in a policy framework to manage the governance of drug policy interventions, and it is the development of this framework, and participation of drug consumers (policy stakeholders) within this framework that the thesis explores, and critiques. Methods Using interpretive policy analysis as an overarching research design, the thesis explores and critiques the development of the concept of ‘problem drug use’, and seeks to unpick this concept using Carol Bacchis ‘What’s the Problem Represented to Be’ (WPR) approach (Bacchi, 2009). In doing so it highlights the master narratives framing both drug use, and drug user participation within policy development, in Scotland. Furthermore, as a result of using the WPR approach to analyse the data, a new critical theory entitled critical drug theory (CDT) is developed. This theory sits alongside other critical theories such as critical race theory, by focussing on the narratives of silenced or marginalised.Results The narratives surrounding drug use define the process by which the participation of stakeholders is incorporated into policy making. More specifically, the narratives of drug harm and the medico/legal structures which surround problematic drug use mean that participation is focused on a small section of the drug using population, namely problematic drug users. This focus is, in part, a result of systemic narratives that have been used to justify policies and practices which disproportionately affect those whose ethnicity, social class, gender, religious, ideological and political viewpoints do not fit into the dominant narrative. Critical drug theory is grounded in critical thought with the underlying premise that the foundations of drug policy, national and international, are based on ideological reasoning that is often used to suppress and silence those who seek to challenge the status quo. Subjecting policies to critique and critical evaluation, such as research into the impact drug laws have on individuals and society (as opposed to the impact drug use has), should be advocated, along with public engagement on the complexity of drug use, pleasure and harm
Traveller community and health practitioner stories of self and each other: a poststructural narrative analysis
No full textResearch attention to Gypsy and Traveller health has grown in recent decades and
highlights significant inequalities in health and access to services experienced by
these groups. Existing work in this area tends to prioritise consideration of how
Gypsies and Travellers speak from a position of belonging to their particular ethnic
or cultural group, often producing fixed and universal claims about the health beliefs
and experiences of Traveller Communities. Little research explores the social
production of Gypsy and Traveller health identities, or how ethnicity may intersect
with wider identity positions in Traveller Community accounts of health. In addition,
health practitioner and Traveller Community accounts have rarely been considered
alongside one another, and the ways health practitioners construct identities in
relation to their work with Traveller Communities has largely evaded the gaze of
health and sociological research.
This thesis sought to contribute to understanding of these areas. It examined the
identity positions Traveller Community members and health practitioners project for
themselves and each other, and where these identities collide or coalesce in stories
of health interactions. Poststructuralist informed narrative inquiry guided interviews
with Romany Gypsies, Irish Travellers and health practitioners working with these
groups. This approach was chosen for its view of identity as multiple and shifting,
and as it enables concurrent attention to both the discourses governing possibilities
for talk about Traveller Community health, and how actors work within these
constraints to give accounts of themselves.
An analysis of participant narratives reveals two overarching areas of potential
concordance or dissonance in the identity positions claimed by health practitioners
and Traveller Community members. The first contrasts the ‘body work’ practitioners
undertook to downplay ‘professional’ identity and position themselves as close to
community members, with Gypsy and Traveller requests for greater access to
professional advice and medical screening. The second concerns divergence in the
extent to which Traveller Communities were presented, and presented themselves,
as future-oriented in relation to their health. Drawing on poststructuralist theory, I
argue that representations of Gypsy and Traveller orientations to time and space are
central in the positioning of these groups as compliant or resistant to health advice,
and to understanding relations of power and resistance in health interactions. The
thesis generates insights for communication between health workers and Traveller
Community members, suggesting a need for attention not only to cultural or
structural barriers, but reflection on how practice is influenced by the stories we tell
about Traveller Communities, the identities practitioners claim for themselves in
relation to their work with ‘disadvantaged’ groups, and the interests these serve
Drug policing in China: drug laws, police culture, and police professionalisation
No full textThe Chinese government has made efforts to professionalise the police and make legal reforms concerning the treatment of drug users. However, when legal changes were evaluated by some scholars (Chu, 2015; Yao, 2016), there was little empirical study as to how drug laws were enforced in reality and how successful the anti-drug police professionalisation was. Plus, as police culture is frequently used to explain police practice (Garland, 2001; Fielding, 1984; Beletsky, Macalino, & Burris, 2005; Benson, 2001; Z. Chen, 2016; Goldsmith, 1990; Jiao, 2001; Marks, Howell, & Shelly, 2016; Paoline & Terrill, 2005; Wood Report, 1997; Reiner, 2010), little attention has been paid to an explanation of the inconsistency between a particular police culture and its corresponding practice.
To fill in these gaps, I conducted participant observation of two Anti-Drug Squads and one Anti-Drug Corps in Jixiang City and interviewed twenty-six anti-drug police officers and two Narcotics Control Officers (NCOs). Participants came from three different generations of anti-drug police officers with different administrative statuses, academic backgrounds, and guanxi networks (connections). Data was coded and analysed using thematic analysis.
The data chapters of the thesis begin with the introduction of guanxi and illustrate how it interacts with frontline policing and affects police professionalisation. Then, I evaluate the changes resulting in stricter supervision of officers and knowledge acquisition methods, as a result of police professionalisation. I, additionally, highlight the importance of craft-based knowledge in policing. Next, I identify and analyse educational, structural, and cultural challenges to police professionalisation and attempt to understand police culture by incorporating the ‘agency’ of police officers with regard to cultural acceptance, rejection, and development. After pointing out the possible side effects of police professionalisation, I demonstrate the cultural differences and conflicts between three generations of police officers and argue that professional competence has become a new source of power that has disrupted the traditional system of power dominated by seniority, guanxi, and administrative status within police organisations, which can potentially contribute to police professionalisation. Hopefully, this thesis can shed light on anti-drug police reform — reducing the harm to drug users and promoting the quality rather than quantity of drug control
Ecologies of care: a posthuman institutional ethnography of nursing
No full textThe value of nursing and nurse work in the UK is unclear. Changes in nursing within
contemporary social, economic and political systems have renegotiated the power structures
that produce the meaning and value of nurse work. An increasing amount of research
addresses nursing and nursing practice, however there is a scarcity of research about
fundamental care and nurse work in contemporary frameworks of nursing. This PhD project
explores how the value and meaning of nurse work is created within contemporary
institutions.
This project was a posthuman institutional ethnography (PIE) conducted at a large
acute NHS hospital in Scotland. The mixed method design involved workforce demographic
data, documentary analysis of the NMC Code of Conduct, participatory ethnography at an
acute ward as well as three-week long multimedia diaries and semi-structured interviews
from 10 practicing nurses. This heterogeneous data was examined using multiple analytical
tools grounded in critical feminist and posthuman theoretical approaches. The project
mapped each of the tools used onto the supporting principles of PIE and situated the
findings from this perspective.
This thesis contributes to nursing research theoretically and methodologically. First, it
suggests understanding fundamental care as an ecology created by people, place and
structure. Second, it positions nursing in the theoretical framework of critical posthumanities
as a (new)materialist practice. Third, it suggests that the obscure valuation of nurse work
makes it difficult for institutions to value nurse work. Fourth, it develops the Posthuman
Institutional Ethnography research method, developed in educational studies by (Taylor &
Fairchild, 2020) as a research method in healthcare for the first time
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