Suchergebnisse

The article explores the ways in which discourses of pleasure are deployed strategically in official commentaries on drug and alcohol consumption. Pleasure as a warrantable motive for, or descriptor of, drug and alcohol consumption appears to be silenced the more that consumption appears problematic for liberal government. Tracing examples of this from the 18th century to the present, it is argued that discourses of 'pleasure' are linked to discourses of reason and freedom, so that problematic drug consumption appears both without reason (for example 'bestial') and unfree (for example 'compulsive'), and thus not as 'pleasant'. In turn, changes in this articulation of pleasure, drugs and freedom can be linked with shifts in the major forms taken by liberal governance in the past two centuries, as these constitute freedom differently.

Engagement in property crime by drug users is often regarded as driven by the need to support a habit and/or as merely an aside to involvement in the drug "industry." This paper examines a group of successful women drug dealers in Melbourne—most of whom are also illicit drug users—and maps their involvement in property crime. It concludes that property offenses are tightly integrated with the women's drug businesses. Success in property offending is a characteristic of successful drug dealers, and stolen property and money plays a key part in the trade—providing a lucrative source of income, gifts, payments, and rewards. Property crime provides excitement and other, valued, intangible satisfactions, including status and self-esteem.

Although the current "war on drugs" is bound to fail, few policymakers will understand that it will fail because the battle plan is based on faulty assumptions about the demand for intoxicating commodities. The strengths & shortcomings of the four contemporary discourses about drugs (pathology, profit, the state, & pleasure) are assessed. Each of these discourses is considered partial at best: pathology & profit discourses assume that demand is an unauthentic response to supply, while state-centered & pleasure discourses assume that demand is natural. Pathology & profit discourses are far more common, as are the solutions they propose -- eradication of drugs & education of users. Demand must be added to the discourse & the implications considered. 66 References. M. Maguire

Contributing to the policy discussion about random drug testing (RDT) in the workplace & linking that debate to contemporary issues of social control, it is found that proponents of RDT fall into two groups: one advocates RDT as a risk management tool (to reduce accidents & improve productivity); & the other is waging a disguised moral crusade (to reduce the demand for illegal drugs by instilling fear in potential users). The second set of claims comes significantly closer to understanding the motivation that fuels RDT, despite the large body of actuarial research that effectively serves to mystify the real issue -- social control of workers. 47 References. M. Maguire

Este estudio revisa el desarrollo del análisis propuesto por Michel Foucault sobre el poder político en términos de gubernamentalidad, y esboza sus características principales. Se examina el despliegue de esta perspectiva, centrándose particularmente en cómo este enfoque genealógico del análisis de la conducta de todos y cada uno ha sido acogido y desarrollado en el mundo angloparlante. Se evalúan algunas de las críticas fundamentales que han sido planteadas a la analítica de la gubernamentalidad, y se arguye en favor de la productividad continua y la creatividad de estas maneras de analizar la emergencia, naturaleza y consecuencias de las artes de gobierno.