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Situating Stigma: An Ethnographic Exploration of How Stigma Arises in Interactions at Different Stages of People’s Drug Use Journeys

The association between stigma and drug use has been widely researched. However, to fully understand the nuances of stigma, as experienced by people who use drugs (PWUD), it is argued that we must look at the situations within which stigma is encountered. To obtain an ‘up close’ look at situated sti...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Long, Fiona Catherine, Jepsen, Kirsty Stuart
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10572790/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37835164
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20196894
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author Long, Fiona Catherine
Jepsen, Kirsty Stuart
author_facet Long, Fiona Catherine
Jepsen, Kirsty Stuart
author_sort Long, Fiona Catherine
collection PubMed
description The association between stigma and drug use has been widely researched. However, to fully understand the nuances of stigma, as experienced by people who use drugs (PWUD), it is argued that we must look at the situations within which stigma is encountered. To obtain an ‘up close’ look at situated stigma, data are drawn from two ethnographic studies—one set in a homeless hostel in the South of England and the other at a substance use service in South Wales. This article explores how PWUD experience and negotiate stigma at different stages of their drug use. We identify three notable themes across these settings. Firstly, ‘othering’ occurs in two distinct ways, by othering the past self or distancing from other PWUDs. Secondly, ‘drug exceptionalism’ is used to justify an individual’s drug use and express frustration at the associations between legality, social harm, and stigma. Finally, in ‘negotiating identities’, individuals present alternate identity roles to either demonstrate clashes in identity or to promote a conventionally positive sense of self. This article contributes to the existing literature on stigma, firstly, by comparing the stigma management strategies of those in active drug use and recovery and, secondly, by using this to highlight the importance of ethnography and situated stigma within this field.
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spelling pubmed-105727902023-10-14 Situating Stigma: An Ethnographic Exploration of How Stigma Arises in Interactions at Different Stages of People’s Drug Use Journeys Long, Fiona Catherine Jepsen, Kirsty Stuart Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The association between stigma and drug use has been widely researched. However, to fully understand the nuances of stigma, as experienced by people who use drugs (PWUD), it is argued that we must look at the situations within which stigma is encountered. To obtain an ‘up close’ look at situated stigma, data are drawn from two ethnographic studies—one set in a homeless hostel in the South of England and the other at a substance use service in South Wales. This article explores how PWUD experience and negotiate stigma at different stages of their drug use. We identify three notable themes across these settings. Firstly, ‘othering’ occurs in two distinct ways, by othering the past self or distancing from other PWUDs. Secondly, ‘drug exceptionalism’ is used to justify an individual’s drug use and express frustration at the associations between legality, social harm, and stigma. Finally, in ‘negotiating identities’, individuals present alternate identity roles to either demonstrate clashes in identity or to promote a conventionally positive sense of self. This article contributes to the existing literature on stigma, firstly, by comparing the stigma management strategies of those in active drug use and recovery and, secondly, by using this to highlight the importance of ethnography and situated stigma within this field. MDPI 2023-10-07 /pmc/articles/PMC10572790/ /pubmed/37835164 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20196894 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Long, Fiona Catherine
Jepsen, Kirsty Stuart
Situating Stigma: An Ethnographic Exploration of How Stigma Arises in Interactions at Different Stages of People’s Drug Use Journeys
title Situating Stigma: An Ethnographic Exploration of How Stigma Arises in Interactions at Different Stages of People’s Drug Use Journeys
title_full Situating Stigma: An Ethnographic Exploration of How Stigma Arises in Interactions at Different Stages of People’s Drug Use Journeys
title_fullStr Situating Stigma: An Ethnographic Exploration of How Stigma Arises in Interactions at Different Stages of People’s Drug Use Journeys
title_full_unstemmed Situating Stigma: An Ethnographic Exploration of How Stigma Arises in Interactions at Different Stages of People’s Drug Use Journeys
title_short Situating Stigma: An Ethnographic Exploration of How Stigma Arises in Interactions at Different Stages of People’s Drug Use Journeys
title_sort situating stigma: an ethnographic exploration of how stigma arises in interactions at different stages of people’s drug use journeys
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10572790/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37835164
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20196894
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