Power, Powerlessness and Addiction
Author(s): Jim Orford
Quantity
Pickup available at Cambridge University Press Bookshop
Usually ready in 24 hours
Power, Powerlessness and Addiction
Cambridge University Press Bookshop
1-2 Trinity Street
Cambridge CB2 1SZ
United Kingdom
🚚 Please note we can only ship within the UK.
FREE delivery on books (excluding sale).
Delivery for other items is £1.50 - £4.50, calculated at checkout.
T&Cs apply.
Free click & collect on all orders.
Addiction exercises enormous power over all those who are touched by it. This book argues that power and powerlessness have been neglected in addiction studies and that they are a unifying theme that brings together different areas of research from the field including the disempowering nature of addiction; effects on family, community and the workplace; epidemiological and ethnographic work; studies of the legal and illegal supply; and theories of treatment and change. Examples of alcohol, drug and gambling addiction are used to discuss the evidence that addiction is most disempowering where social resources to resist it are weakest; the ways in which the dominant discourses about addictive behaviour encourage the attributing of responsibility for addiction to individuals and divert attention from the powerful who benefit from addiction; and the ways in which the voices of those whose interests are least well-served by addiction are silenced.
- Breaks new ground in addiction theory by challenging the dominant psychobiological thinking about addiction and bringing together addiction research and power theory topics that are normally kept apart
- Embraces a broad span of research relevant to addiction and uses examples of alcohol, drug and gambling addiction throughout the book
- Raises the question of how we should all respond to addiction as individuals and as a society – put up with it, turn our backs on it, or stand up to it?
Choose options