How do representations of the ‘drug problem’ in Greece produce governable subjects? A WPR-inspired approach

Abstract

This thesis explores the 'drug problem' in Athens, Greece, in relation to drug policy, cultural impacts of addiction, and historical perspectives on drug use, with a particular focus on its public nature amidst economic and social crises. Conducted from April 2018 to February 2019, this qualitative research involved 3.5 months of ethnographic observations in four open drug scenes and 32 semi-structured interviews. These interviews captured the perspectives of diverse stakeholders, including local community members residing in neighbourhoods with open drug scenes, people who used drugs, parents (not related to the former), drug treatment professionals, and drug policy experts. Set against a backdrop of an economic downturn, a refugee influx, and a recent HIV outbreak among people who inject drugs, this research critically analyses the performative nature of these crises and their impact on Greek drug policy and treatment. By employing the 'What's the Problem Represented to be?' approach, the thesis challenges the notion of a single, linear cause of the 'drug problem', highlighting instead the complex discourses that frame the 'problem', shaping policy and treatment responses, public attitudes, and lived experiences. The findings assess how societal, professional, and official discourses interact to construct the Greek 'drug problem', using the visibility of drugs in the public spaces of Athens as a basis for exploring community and stakeholder responses to open drug scenes, as well as drug treatment, policy, stigma, self-stigma, and addiction conceptualisations. By examining these problem representations and their effects, the research highlights the problematisations, assumptions, and silences that shape public understandings and policy, advocating for a re-evaluation of the 'drug problem' amid ongoing economic and social upheaval. The findings demonstrate how these problem representations produce governable subjects, consistent with Bacchi's (2009) methodology.