1st Edition
The Social Value of Drug Addicts Uses of the Useless
248 Pages
by
Routledge
248 Pages
by
Routledge
248 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
Drug users are typically portrayed as worthless slackers, burdens on society, and just plain useless—culturally, morally, and economically. By contrast, this book argues that the social construction of some people as useless is in fact extremely useful to other people. Leading medical anthropologists Merrill Singer and J. Bryan Page analyze media representations, drug policy, and underlying social... Read more
Introduction; Chapter One Drugs, Race, and Gender in the Social Construction of Drug Consumers; Chapter Two Drug Users through the Ages; Chapter Three Representations of Addicts and the Construction of Prohibitions; Chapter Four Imagine That: Drug Users and Literature; Chapter Five Picture This; Chapter Six The Legal Construction of Drug Users; Chapter Seven Drug Users in Social Science; Conclusion;
Biography
Merrill Singer, J Bryan Page
"In The Social Value of Drug Addicts: Uses of the Useless, Merrill Singer and J. Bryan Page provide a sweeping analysis of popular representations of drug use and drug users in U.S. culture...In making such an offering, Merrill Singer and J. Bryan Page continue to cement their legacy as scholars who have tried to talk sense to us about our society’s most harmful habits of social distinction."— Jennifer J. Carroll, American Anthropologist
