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In Search of Respect.
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Have any of you read a book called 'In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in EL barrio'? It's a very interesting read about the lives of crack cocaine dealers and their families in the East side of New York, and the author lived in the neighbourhood for 3 years to get to know his informants. It shows a 'human' side of the american drugs culture, a portrayal of which I think is missing in Britain. I've been meaning to post a topic about it for ages, and just wanted to get people's thoughts on it.
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i dont think thats entirely justified, but the material does look interesting...
trainspotting, while a good book is nothing more than a fiction novel with a hint of reality...the ideas behind the book are less about drugs and more relationships
for a good book on drugs, try reading The Junk Yard by Marsha Hunt, it's about heroin addicts in dublin from their views, she just edited it, it's not actually uk but close enough to home, quite evocative and emotive so if you get the chance, read it....
actually i think you'll find thats not quite so...Irvine Welsh wrote this based upon personal experience and those immediately around him.
Its fictionally contextualised but it is worth remembering that all ethnographic research in its construction and purvation of messages is always subjective ...
true but i find it to be more of a story with drugs in it than a message about drugs if you get what i'm at...
i do but any story involving drug users is inevitably going to incorporate human experience, thats the point. Drug users are human beings with individual experiences.
i genuinely cant wait :yes:
To an extent, but then, isn't all research subjective to a degree? Is there such a things as a 'true truth'? (Beyond scientific facts?) Trainspotting is exactly what I thought you would say, and while motivated by real life experiences, it is in no way a 'true' story. In search of respect is a 'real' story, a lot more so than trainspotting. What I'm getting at is Bourgois looks at not just the bad 'drug' culture of America, but notions of masculinity, femininity, childhood, employment, homelife, and not just how these are affected by drugs, something which I feel British researchers have avoided, almost like avoiding 'humanising' drug dealers and users. I will try and have a look at the Dublin one Turlough, cheers for that.
Howard Marks.....he's welsh too...
Well i was actually engaging with the representation idea more than anything else, in respect to Trainspotting. It may seen like an obvious one but it was a very unique exploration of the human condition, given that it wasnt a purely academic publication.
You've got me thinking actually now. im currently @ Uni of Brum, which is very big on ethnographic research and basically invented cultural studies, theres surely to be something of interest to be found here. I'll try and look something up for you.
I was talking to a senior lecturer in addiction psychiatry (who also works with addicts in Brum), a really interesting and helpful bloke wh gave me his card and asked me to send him some research. If i can and am allowed would you like to see it?
lol Gidden...im one of these people whos sceptical of almost all social theory until i can get to grips and apply it...i'd like my BA to have applications and exist somewhere else outside of books.
I don't know if you are interested, but Drugscope has an extensive library in their 'good practice and research' and 'information and library services' sections...
clever little sausage arent you thanks for that
It details a qualitative study of 25 heroin users in Sweden, over a period of time, based on 150 interviews with the users, and is described as 'an enthralling and brave account of a difficult area of social research.' Not British obviously, but I thought it was interesting nonetheless.