Injecting Bodies in More-Than-Human Worlds

Description

Drug use is widely understood in terms on its subjects, substances and settings. But what happens when these distinctions start to blur? Injecting Bodies in More-than-Human Worlds moves away from the 'materiality' of drug use and non-human matter and offers unique and fresh insights into the world of injecting drugs. Focusing on the Deleuzian-Spinozian notion of bodies-in-process, Dennis proposes a new and timely approach to drug use whereby bodies are conceptualized in relation to others - human and not - as something we do, as opposed to something we have. Using rich, ethnographic data to demonstrate their in/capacities to act through this relationality, Dennis carefully maps out where these bodies are thought, practiced, lived and intervened-with; caught in tension between pleasure and addiction, activity and passivity; 'becoming-other' and 'becoming-blocked'; and making and breaking habits. Arguing for deeper engagement both with how bodies are enacted and our collective role in combining them in healthier ways, this volume is a unique intervention into the sociology of drugs and, more widely, health and illness. It will appeal to students and researchers interested in fields such as Science and Technology Studies, Sociology and Social Policy, Drugs and Addiction, and Health and Medical Anthropology. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: Doing drug research in more-than-human worlds 1 Approaching bodies: ‘Becoming-with’ Affect, matter, practice Becoming-with as method Rhizomatic analysis or becoming moved Ethicopolitics or doing research with care Conclusion 2 Thinking bodies: Conceptualising pleasure and not-so-pleasurable concepts Conceptualising addicted pleasure: a modern paradox Making concepts: keeping pleasure and addiction apart Pleasure has never been free: ‘As soon as I start to think about it…’ Pleasure-in-tension: ‘… It’s a really lovely feeling but my god the crap that comes with it’ 3 Practicing bodies: ‘On the tilt’: the injecting event and the fragility of pleasure amongst other affects Keeping the glass upright: a relational achievement Fragile connections: directing bodies towards pleasure The glass drops: slipping assemblages Balancing the ‘speedball’: ‘a different drug altogether’ 4 Living bodies: Vital becomings: becoming-normal, -other and -blocked with drugs Becoming ‘normal’ Becoming-other Becoming-blocked: ‘you don’t grow’ Conclusion 5 Intervening-with bodies: Troubling recovery: mediating habits and doing more-than-harm reduction Becoming-with drugs as habit ‘The recovery agenda’ More-than-harm reduction: working with habits Conclusion Conclusion: Empowering bodies: making bodies better? Appendix I: participant list Appendix II: participant terminology Appendix III: Body maps Bibliography Index