Empowered and self-managing users in methadone treatment? |
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Authors: | Bagga Bjerge Bjarke Nielsen |
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Institution: | Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research, Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark |
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Abstract: | Empowerment is a keyword in treatment. Users should have the means and possibilities to influence their treatment and become self-managing. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in a Danish methadone treatment project, we find that the practices of users and staff are often not carried out in accordance with governmental intentions. We identify a gap between the official notions of treatment and practices. We analyse the notions and practices of empowerment by applying two analytical perspectives. First, we apply a constructionist perspective in which empowerment is analysed as wanting to set users ‘free’ but also as ways to govern. We elaborate the analysis by applying a more practice-oriented focus. Drawing on this perspective, we analyse the ways in which staff and users constantly produce, construct and negotiate institutional practices that differ from the governmental intentions for treatment. |
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Keywords: | empowerment social Policy methadone treatment |
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