Project Team

Chief Investigators:

Professor Suzanne Fraser, National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University
Professor David Moore, National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University
Professor Börje Olsson, SoRAD, Stockholm University
Professor Jukka Törrönen, SoRAD, Stockholm University
Dr Mimmi Eriksson Tinghög, SoRAD, Stockholm University

Project

In many areas of social policy, Sweden and Australia sit at opposite ends of the welfare state spectrum (valentine 2011). Sweden’s approach is relatively open, non-stigmatising and inclusive while Australia’s is relatively narrow and restrictive. It would seem logical that their respective drug policies follow similar lines, but instead, they present as the reverse, with Sweden promoting a narrow, restrictive, disciplinarian prohibitionist approach and Australia a more open, permissive harm reduction approach. How might we understand these two, seemingly contradictory, stories of Sweden and Australia? This project explorde this question through original research on two issues, both of which are central to the formulation of drug policy:

1. metaphors of inclusion/exclusion in Swedish and Australian drug policy
2. discourses and concepts of ‘addiction’ in Swedish and Australian drug policy

Two qualitative research methods were employed: in-depth interviews with policy makers; and textual analysis of policy documents.

Publication:

Moore, D., Fraser, S., Törrönen, J. and Eriksson Tinghög, M. (2015). Sameness and difference: Metaphor and politics in the constitution o, addiction, social exclusion and gender in Australian and Swedish drug policy. International Journal of Drug Policy, 26, (4), pp.420-428.