Smokefree: A Social, Moral and Political Atmosphere

Description

Although tobacco is a legal substance, many governments around the world have introduced legislation to restrict smoking and access to tobacco products. Smokefree critically examines these changes, from the increasing numbers of places being designated as ‘smokefree’ to changes in cigarette packaging and the portrayal of smoking in popular culture. Unlike existing texts, this book neither advances a public health agenda nor condemns the erosion of individual rights. Instead, Simone Dennis takes a classical anthropological approach to present the first agenda–free, full–length study of smoking. Observing and analysing smoking practices and environments, she investigates how the social, moral, political and legal atmosphere of ‘smokefree’ came into being and examines the ideas about smoke, air, the senses, space, and time which underlie it. Looking at the impact on public space and individuals, she reveals broader findings about the relationship between the state, agents, and what is seen to constitute ‘the public’. Enriched with ethnographic vignettes from the author's ten years of fieldwork in Australia, Smokefree is a challenging, important book which demands to be read and discussed by anyone with an interest in anthropology, sociology, political science, human geography, and public health. Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of Figures Foreword Acknowledgements Acknowledgement of informing works Acknowledgements of persons Orienting notes: Ethnographic vignettes from a fascinating atmosphere A fascinating atmosphere Ethnographic vignettes The strength (or weakness) of vignettes A note on Australian specificity and broader relevance Introduction: Examining smoking in the era of smokefree: Public health and anthropology The anthropology of smoking (a smokefree anthropology) Anthropology’s smoker A new approach to smoking and smokefree An argument for inchoateness The structure Part 1 The lay of the smokefree land Chapter 1 The difference between tobacco and tomatoes Introduction On ‘atmospheres’ Some thoughts on an uninsurable monkey Public health interventions and the construction of the smoker The Benson and Hedges World Series Cricket, 1988 Smokefree places The nuances of public place legislation Legislating the air Chapter 2 Oppositionary pairings and ruinous smoke Introduction Oppositionary pair: Right and wrong Oppositionary pair: Public health and tobacco companies Oppositionary pair: A long life or an untimely death Oppositionary pair: The time of smoking and the time free of smoking Oppositionary pair: Two spatial states Chapter 3 Reimagining the smoker Introduction The smoker, doubly constructed Public health’s rational agent Anthropological reformulation of the smoker? Michelle the rational smoker Michelle, reanalysed Putting things that are meant to be held apart, together: The internal inconsistency of smoking Come off the veranda Part 2 First, second, third and fourth hand smoke Chapter 4 Breathing in smoke(free), firsthand Introduction The theoretical backgroundedness of the air itself Air as agent Explicating the (firsthand) air for the ignorant agent Take a big breath in Chapter 5 Miasmatic exhalation: Breathing out (secondhand) Introduction Explicating the secondhand air The nose knows danger Jennifer, defender of the air Public air An illness-inducing stench: Cancer is catching There is difference in the air Colonial anthropology: Eradicating smoke and mosquitoes Protecting the infinite and pure air Chapter 6 Abject thirdhand smoke Introduction Thirdhand smoke ‘Mobile tobacco contamination packages’ Smell and the thirdhand trickster Touch: How to deal with witches in the family The air has a history The second law of thermodynamics Chapter 7 Fourthhand smoke: Going to Flavor Country Introduction Explicating the air in cigarette advertising Come on, come to Flavor Country Small t taste Capital T taste Olive Brown is Not classy All flights to Flavor Country have been grounded The bitter taste of a gangrenous foot Smoking to remember the air Come breathe on me, honey The rational agent and the travel agent Conclusion Notes Orienting notes Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 References Index