The twin dangers of order and disorder: rethinking the relationship between movement and change in drug treatment

Bank, M, Nissen, M and Brown, SD ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7841-3225, 2023. The twin dangers of order and disorder: rethinking the relationship between movement and change in drug treatment. Contemporary Drug Problems, 50 (4), pp. 491-506. ISSN 0091-4509

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Abstract

In this article, we propose that the perpetual difficulties in drug-treatment can be understand as a consequence of how a binary opposition of order and disorder continue to structure drug discourses and treatment practices. When drug-use is seen as the disorder of addiction, recovery becomes reduced to movements between fixed points benchmarked against pre-existing standards. This obscures how recovery rather could be understood as a process of self-differentiation where subjects develop new norms to adapt to changing life circumstances. In the article we draw on empirical material from a Copenhagen drug-treatment facility for young drug users, to analyze how change and development can be facilitated through a fundamental institutional ‘movability’. Drawing on the philosophy of change of Henri Bergson, the assemblage approach of Deleuze & Guattari and the aesthetic theory of Jacques Rancière, we analyze how a particular assemblage of discourses, the organization of treatment and aesthetic spaces disrupt existing orders and open for different possibilities for participation and development for young drug users. In particular we turn the attention to how aesthetic spaces and sensuous processes can counter stigmatization by overcoming the frame of ‘treatment’ and the affective experiences associated with the categorization as a ‘drug-user’ and facilitates the development of care as new ways of becoming and being-together.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Contemporary Drug Problems
Creators:	Bank, M., Nissen, M. and Brown, S.D.
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Date:	December 2023
Volume:	50
Number:	4
ISSN:	0091-4509
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1177/00914509231204945 DOI 1836017 Other
Rights:	Accepted for publication in Contemporary Drug Problems. Reuse is restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses.
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	Laura Ward
Date Added:	16 Nov 2023 09:20
Last Modified:	16 Nov 2023 09:20
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/50388

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