Call for Papers: Critical Perspectives on Addiction
(Volume 14 of Advances in Medical Sociology)
Editor: Julie Netherland (City University of New York Graduate Center)
Series Editor: Professor Barbara Katz Rothman
(Volume 14 of Advances in Medical Sociology)
Editor: Julie Netherland (City University of New York Graduate Center)
Series Editor: Professor Barbara Katz Rothman
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Our understandings of addiction are rapidly changing. New technologies and biomedical treatments are reconfiguring addiction as a brain disease, and the concept of “addiction” is expanding to cover an ever widening array of substances and behaviours, from food to shopping. As addiction has taken up the discourse of neuroscience, gained some legitimacy within mainstream medicine, and become popularized through reality televisions shows and media attention to celebrity “addicts,” its cultural resonance has increased, but the meaning of “addiction” remains contested and confused. Despite new efforts to medicalize addiction, moral and punitive frameworks for addressing addictions persist, and theories about addiction are also increasingly framed within neoliberal and public health ideologies that emphasize the individual’s responsibility to make him or herself “well.” This edited volume of Advances in Medical Sociology aims to look critically at how addiction has been framed historically, how it being characterized and understood through contemporary cultural representations, how new treatments and technologies are reconfiguring addiction, and how “addiction” is being expanded beyond illicit drugs and alcohol to explain phenomena such as “excessive” eating and gambling and the exponential rise in prescription narcotic use. This volume also seeks to examine how medical, behavioural and punitive frameworks for understanding and treating addiction come together to shape and control “addicts.” Building on a rich sociological literature about drugs and addiction, this volume aims to interrogate the meaning(s) of addiction and critically examine the ways in which addiction is used as a lens for understanding individual behaviour, deviance, illness, politics, and policy. Empirical pieces are especially encouraged.
Our understandings of addiction are rapidly changing. New technologies and biomedical treatments are reconfiguring addiction as a brain disease, and the concept of “addiction” is expanding to cover an ever widening array of substances and behaviours, from food to shopping. As addiction has taken up the discourse of neuroscience, gained some legitimacy within mainstream medicine, and become popularized through reality televisions shows and media attention to celebrity “addicts,” its cultural resonance has increased, but the meaning of “addiction” remains contested and confused. Despite new efforts to medicalize addiction, moral and punitive frameworks for addressing addictions persist, and theories about addiction are also increasingly framed within neoliberal and public health ideologies that emphasize the individual’s responsibility to make him or herself “well.” This edited volume of Advances in Medical Sociology aims to look critically at how addiction has been framed historically, how it being characterized and understood through contemporary cultural representations, how new treatments and technologies are reconfiguring addiction, and how “addiction” is being expanded beyond illicit drugs and alcohol to explain phenomena such as “excessive” eating and gambling and the exponential rise in prescription narcotic use. This volume also seeks to examine how medical, behavioural and punitive frameworks for understanding and treating addiction come together to shape and control “addicts.” Building on a rich sociological literature about drugs and addiction, this volume aims to interrogate the meaning(s) of addiction and critically examine the ways in which addiction is used as a lens for understanding individual behaviour, deviance, illness, politics, and policy. Empirical pieces are especially encouraged.
This edited volume aims to be a benchmark text in the sociology of addiction, bringing together a broad array of critical perspectives and issues. Therefore, we are calling for papers addressing a wide variety of topics pertaining to the sociology of addiction, including - but not limited to:
- Historical and new efforts to medicalize addiction
- Critical interrogations of medical, public health, scientific, behavioural, moral, and punitive frameworks for understanding and/or treating addiction
- Changing perceptions of addiction and addictive disorders within different settings and in the broader society
- The rise of novel applications of addiction frameworks (e.g., obesity as caused by ‘food addiction’) and novel treatments (e.g., deep brain stimulation, vaccines, and psychopharmceuticals, like buprenorphine and naltrexone)
- Critical analyses of non-substance addictions (e.g., gambling, shopping, sex, etc...) and how these support and/or challenge traditional notions of addiction
- Representations of addiction in the media and popular culture
- Addiction treatment interventions and how they reflect and/or shape larger sociopolitcal contexts
- The relationships between frameworks for understanding addiction, interventions to address it, and subjectivity
- The relationship between addiction and larger sociological constructs, such as racism, gender, structure/agency, etc...
- The rise in addiction to prescription medications and how this challenges existing conceptual, policy and treatment approaches to drug addiction.
This list should be treated as suggestive rather than prescriptive. Papers addressing other relevant topics are welcome as are informal inquiries about proposed topics.
Potential contributors should email a 500-750 word abstract by October 3, 2011 to: julie.netherland@gmail.com .
Potential contributors should email a 500-750 word abstract by October 3, 2011 to: julie.netherland@gmail.com .
Informal enquiries to this address are also welcome. Name and institutional affiliation of author(s) should also be supplied, including full contact details of the main author. Proposals will be reviewed by the editor, and authors notified by November 7, 2011. The deadline for full submissions (7500-8500 words) will be February 7, 2012. Publication of the volume is expected in mid- to late 2012.
