In Australia and around the world addiction is defined and rendered measurable with the use of standardised addiction screening and diagnostic questionnaires or ‘tools’. Wherever statements are made about addiction, its effects and appropriate remedies, these tools have played a key part. In 2015, SSAC researchers Dr Robyn Dwyer and Professor Suzanne Fraser began analysing these tools…
After successful data collection in Melbourne, Bendigo, Sydney and Northern Rivers, interviews for the SSAC research project ‘Experiences of addiction, treatment and recovery’ are now complete. The interviews comprise material from 60 participants who consider themselves to have an alcohol or other drug (AOD) habit, dependence or addiction. Commenting on the experience of conducting some of the interviews,…
Dr Kate Seear, adjunct research fellow with SSAC and Senior Lecturer in Law at Monash University, was recently awarded a prestigious DECRA fellowship by the Australian Research Council. The fellowship will support Kate to conduct a major international study on addiction and the law over the next three years (2016-18). Entitled ‘Addiction in the Australian…
Showcased recently at the 2015 Australian Community Support Organisation (ACSO) international criminal justice conference, the work of SSAC PhD Student, Eliana Sarmiento focuses on the role of drug treatment courts in defining addiction and shaping lives. Held in Melbourne in October, the conference was organised around the thematic question, ‘do prisons change lives?’ Eliana’s project…
Following successful data collection in Melbourne, Bendigo and Sydney, SSAC research project ‘Experiences of addiction, treatment and recovery’ is now entering its final phase of interviewing, this time in the New South Wales Northern Rivers region. Research associate Dr Kiran Pienaar has commenced interviewing in Byron Bay, and plans to collect data across the region,…
China’s compulsory drug detention centres attract international criticism for human right violations. As such they are a key site of contestation between China’s government and Western human rights advocacy organisations. The issue is framed as a contest between ‘health’ and ‘criminalisation’ models in which a central organising concept is that of addiction. SSAC MPhil student Judy Chang…
In a newly published article by Dr Robyn Dwyer and Professor Suzanne Fraser, standardised addiction screening and diagnostic tools used widely in Australia and around the world are analysed to illuminate their role in defining addiction and rendering it measurable. A key element in expert knowledge-making, the tools play a central role in establishing the ‘reality’ of addiction. In…
Recent publications from members of the SSAC team cover a range of topics related to projects currently underway in the program. A newly published article lead-authored by Dr Kiran Pienaar analyses the representation of addiction in two major Australian alcohol and other drug-related online resources, and uses feminist and science studies theory to argue that…
How do the United States’ responses to drug use stack up when compared with Canada, Australia and Europe? A recent HuffPost Live discussion hosted by Ricky Camilleri (‘How Does the Rest of the World Treat Addiction’) made clear that while the US is showing promising signs of change, much remains to do to bring the…
Held on day one (June 11, 2014) of the ISSA conference in Vancouver, Canada, SSAC’s interdisciplinary colloquium, ‘New social studies of addiction’, showcased Australian research on addiction. Recent changes to the substance use entries in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) and the rise of neuroscience have introduced new debates into the addiction field. In…
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