Curtin University Homepage
  • Library
  • Help
    • Admin

    espace - Curtin’s institutional repository

    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
    View Item 
    • espace Home
    • espace
    • Curtin Research Publications
    • View Item
    • espace Home
    • espace
    • Curtin Research Publications
    • View Item

    Science and scepticism: Drug information, young men and counterpublic health

    Access Status
    Fulltext not available
    Authors
    Farrugia, A.
    Fraser, Suzanne
    Date
    2016
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citation
    Farrugia, A. and Fraser, S. 2016. Science and scepticism: Drug information, young men and counterpublic health. Health: an interdisciplinary journal for the social study of health, illness and medicine. 21 (6): pp. 595-615.
    Source Title
    Health: an interdisciplinary journal for the social study of health, illness and medicine
    DOI
    10.1177/1363459315628042
    School
    National Drug Research Institute (NDRI)
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/8719
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    It is perhaps no surprise that young people can be sceptical of the drug-related information they receive in school-based health education, health promotion and the media. Significant societal anxiety surrounds young people’s drug consumption, so it is tempting to approach this scepticism as a problem to be solved. In this article, we look closely at a group of young Australian men (n = 25), all of whom hold deeply sceptical views about the drug information they received in schools, social marketing campaigns and public speech generally. We do not approach their scepticism as a problem to be solved in itself, however. Instead, we analyse its origins and how it relates to the way knowledge is constructed in drug education, health promotion and media accounts of drug use. To conceptualise this scepticism, we draw on Irwin and Michael’s analysis of the changing relationship between science and society, Warner’s theorisation of publics and counterpublics, and Race’s related notion of ‘counterpublic health’. The article organises the data into three key themes: scepticism about the accuracy of the claims made about drug risks and dangers, scepticism about representations of drug users, and scepticism about the motivations behind the health messages and drug policy in general. We then draw these different aspects of scepticism together to argue that the young men can be seen to constitute a health ‘counterpublic’, and we consider the implications of this approach, arguing for what has been described as a more diplomatic engagement between science and publics.

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Exploring the micro-politics of normalised drug use in the social lives of a group of young 'party drug' users in Melbourne, Australia
      Pennay, Amy (2012)
      Young people today live in what some scholars and commentators have defined as a 'post-modern' era, characterised by globalisation, the internet, mass media, production and consumption. Post-modernity has seen a change ...
    • A randomised comparison trial to evaluate an in-home parent-directed drug education intervention
      Beatty, Shelley Ellen (2003)
      The long-term regular use of tobacco and hazardous alcohol use are responsible for significant mortality and morbidity as well as social and economic harm in Australia each year. There is necessary the more cost-efficient ...
    • An ethnographic study of recreational drug use and identity management among a network of electronic dance music enthusiasts in Perth, Western Australia
      Green, Rachael Renee (2012)
      This thesis explores the social contexts and cultural significance of amphetamine-type stimulant (ATS) and alcohol use among a social network of young adults in Perth, Western Australia. The study is positioned by the ...
    Advanced search

    Browse

    Communities & CollectionsIssue DateAuthorTitleSubjectDocument TypeThis CollectionIssue DateAuthorTitleSubjectDocument Type

    My Account

    Admin

    Statistics

    Most Popular ItemsStatistics by CountryMost Popular Authors

    Follow Curtin

    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 

    CRICOS Provider Code: 00301JABN: 99 143 842 569TEQSA: PRV12158

    Copyright | Disclaimer | Privacy statement | Accessibility

    Curtin would like to pay respect to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members of our community by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which the Perth campus is located, the Whadjuk people of the Nyungar Nation; and on our Kalgoorlie campus, the Wongutha people of the North-Eastern Goldfields.