In this article, we examine young people’s attachments to neoliberalism and how these are at play in their perceptions of their possibilities to enact positive futures and a ‘good life’. Drawing on the concept of ‘master narratives’, we have analyzed 21 interviews with young people aged between 19 and 23 (7 young men, 14 young women). Our participants believed in the possibility of achieving a happy life in the future if they just studied hard enough and developed the necessary skills and traits. This left little or no room for competing activities as it was seen as either an obstacle to their studies or simply did not contribute to their life project in a meaningful way. However, their narratives also contained a darker side in which our participants displayed a high level of stress and mental anguish, sometimes even manifesting itself in physical form. Despite evidence of the adverse effects on their well-being, our participants displayed a strong attachment to neo-liberalism’s promises of a good future.

The article examines how alcohol use and well-being are entangled in young people's lives by analyzing qualitative longitudinal interviews with four participants, following their substance use practices over seven years. It examines what kinds of bodily and incorporeal transformations their substance use facilitated when it became connected in a particular way to human and non-human actors that formed assemblages. The substance-using assemblages were analyzed by focusing on how they increase or decrease the participants' capacities for well-being. The analysis shows that substance use assemblages enabled several positive bodily and incorporeal transformations among our participants. They facilitated their transition from limited, regulated bodies into more powerful ones, increasing their capacities to express themselves more effectively, be more social, humorous, bold, cooperative, free, happy, extroverted, flirtatious, relaxed, functional, and balanced. At the same time, substance use assemblages also produced various negative transformations that decreased participants' capacities for well-being, generating heavier, sadder, shame-feeling, weak, chemically unbalanced, worried, passionless, and anxious bodies. Heavy-drinking assemblages in particular produced transformations that drew bodies into conflicting lines of becoming. The tensions between them connected participants' bodies to stratifying, controlling discourses that produced incorporeal transformations that began to limit their desire to drink. Overall, the analysis shows how heavy or continuous substance use made bodies vulnerable, requiring attentive care not only in terms of how substances were used, but also in terms of ensuring that other assemblages that were important for life were well taken care of. Where this did not occur, substance use produced bad encounters and negative effects.

The paper analyses how the Covid-19 pandemic affected young people’s alcohol-related assemblages, trajectories of becoming and identity claims in Sweden. The data is based on longitudinal qualitative interviews among heavy and moderate drinking young people (n = 23; age range 15–24 years). The participants were interviewed two to three times before the Covid-19 pandemic and once at the end of it, between 2017 and 2021. The analysis draws on actor-network theory and narrative positioning approach. The analysis demonstrates how the lockdown produced trajectories of becoming boring, normal, stress-free, self-caring, self-confident and shielded. In these trajectories, drinking was positioned into relations that either increased young people’s capacities for well-being or decreased them. Due to the lockdown, some participants learnt to be moved by relations that contributed to replace drinking with competing activities, while others experienced that the lockdown made drinking a more attractive activity, turning it into a collective force that helped them to overcome isolation. The results show how drinking is a heterogeneous activity which may increase or decrease young people’s capacities for well-being, depending on what kinds of assemblages and trajectories of becoming it is embedded in.

In this article, we analyze the care work employed by people who inject drugs to counter risks in their life situations and make their drug use safer. Injecting drugs is associated with numerous health and social risks, such as overdose, the use of used and shared equipment, and getting caught by the police. We approach descriptions of injection events as narratives of care. Participants (N=32) were recruited for semi-structured interviews primarily from the Stockholm Needle and Syringe Exchange Program between August 2022 and March 2023. The sample is heterogeneous in terms of age, gender, drug use, and social situation. The interviews were analyzed using actor-network theory, asking what kind of care work and ‘action programs’ strengthen or weaken participants' capacities for safer injection events and what kinds allow risks – or antiprograms – to enter the event. We identified four different action programs based on home or public settings. They all aimed to increase capacities for safe drug use, but two of them were more vulnerable to risks. Their success depended on the type of actors they could recruit for care work, the risks they were targeting, and how well they coordinated actors to work together to minimize risks. The analysis highlights the scope, strengths, and limitations of care work in relation to material, social, political, and institutional actors, as well as the importance of access to proper resources such as a home, stable income, and a healthy body.

Background. Drug policy is prone to build on rationales based on different moralities rather than evidence. Less is known about how moralities influence drug policy implementation in practice. The aim was to analyze expressions of moralities among local policy-makers, professionals, and drug users in the context of the Stockholm needle and syringe exchange program (NSP).

Methods. Using political documentation from Stockholm (2003–2016), focus group (12 NSP staff), and 32 drug user interviews, moralities concerning drug policy and harm reduction were analyzed based on moral foundations theory and boundary work.

Results. Three main moral dilemmas were identified concerning the subjects, aims, and orientation of drug policy: whether drug users are worthy of inclusion to society; if the general public should be prioritized or the health of drug users, and the orientation of practices as based on control or autonomy. Policy debate was driven by virtues such as purity and authority, whereas staff and drug users valued care, fairness and liberty.Conclusions. The prohibitionist and abstinence-oriented Swedish drug policy has created social boundaries on the practice-level. Hence, users’ perspectives, and those who care about them, should be extensively involved in political discussions to foster a more moral and humane drug policy.

Background: By contrasting the approaches of neutralization theory (NT) and actor-network theory (ANT), we argue that research using NT can contribute to stigmatizing people with substance use problems as ‘liars,’ ‘irresponsible,’ and ’incapable.’ In contrast, ANT can help us become more sensitive to the participants’ realities and produce non-stigmatizing results. Methods: The data consists of 22 life stories in which participants describe the concerns their substance use caused for their parenting and how they addressed them. With ANT, we analyze what kinds of mediators in our participants’ parenting assemblages increased or decreased their capacities to mitigate the negative effects of substance use on their children. Results: In our analysis, we identified four parenting assemblages. The assemblages of ‘displacing substance use’ and ‘keeping up ordinary family life’ increased the participants’ capacities to move substance use away from encounters with children or to use it to strengthen their engagement with everyday life parenting practices. The assemblages of ‘losing oneself to the dominance of substances’ and ‘being moved by a traumatic past’ decreased the participants’ parenting capacities by weakening their connections to good enough parenting, or by allowing the connections from the past to dominate and mediate their present action, leading to relapse in drug use and the loss of a child. Conclusion: Our study suggests that by shifting the perspective from doubt and criticism (NT) to empathy and care (ANT), research can transcend mere critique and serve as a tool for empowerment, advocacy, and meaningful change.

Aim: This article examines how Swedish parents navigate the multifaceted challenges of parenthood while struggling with substance use problems, including both alcohol and illicit drugs, and societal stigma. It explores how parents present themselves as responsible caregivers while distinguishing between acceptable and harmful substance use in the context of parenting. Methods: The study uses data from unstructured 15 life story interviews, conducted over the phone or Zoom. The participants narrated their life stories related to substance use problems, covering various topics like education, relationships, and parenting. The interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis to reveal strategies used by participants to mitigate perceived harm from substance use problems, enabling them to present themselves as responsible parents. Results: Three main themes were identified: Hiding, compensating, and disappearing, focusing on time and place. The analysis shows that Swedish parents manage parenthood with substance use problems and societal stigma by concealing substance use problems and maintaining a ‘façade of normality’, often scheduling use when children are asleep. Some resort to hiding substances to create the illusion of moderation. Despite challenges, like needing alternative locations for substance use problems, parents emphasize active engagement in their children’s lives. Conclusion: This study highlights how parents with substance use problems navigate parenthood amid societal stigma, revealing their strategies and challenges. These insights are vital for healthcare professionals and policymakers crafting support interventions to address parental experiences and associated emotional burdens.

It has been suggested that a pivotal explanation for the drastic decrease in young people’s alcohol consumption is the younger generations concern with taking responsibility for a variety of areas in their lives. Emanating from this, the overall aim of this article is to consider how alcohol and drinking situations are enacted among a group of emerging adults in Sweden from this ‘generation sensible’, and how they describe the relation between alcohol, pleasure and control. The study is based on 23 qualitative interviews with people aged 19–23. Inspired by assemblage theory we analyzed how important human and non-human elements congregate in described drinking situations. The analysis showed that alcohol is enacted as a strong psychoactive substance and described like other (illegal) drugs, rather than being seen as more harmless and acceptable. Pleasure in drinking is made possible through control and planning, and in downplaying the importance of drinking and the transgressive power of intoxication. We suggest that the risk-taking element in drinking is stigmatized among groups of emerging adults. It is concluded that while alcohol is described as unimportant to several participants, alcohol assemblages are not, therefore participants work hard to shape drinking situations to counteract loss of control.

Background: Reducing risks and harms among people who inject drugs by, for example, Needle and Syringe exchange Programs (NSP) may be impeded in practice by, for example, policy restrictions, particularly in settings like Sweden where a zero-tolerance drug strategy prevails. In practice, risks and harms are produced through an interplay of multiple mutually reinforcing factors. Moreover, risk management strategies may constitute risks per se and generate new risks, potentially intensifying overall harm. This study aimed to increase our understanding of how such risks are generated in the lives of people who inject drugs. Methods: In 2022–2023, we interviewed 32 purposively selected research participants, primarily recruited through the Stockholm NSP. Drawing on actor-network theory, we analyzed the interviews to identify factors—constituent human and non-human actors—that constitute and generate risk and harm. These dynamics were conceptualized as risk-amplifying loops, in which harms are contingently enacted, may multiply, and the effects of policy and practice may become unintentional and unpredictable. Results: Four risk-amplifying loops were inductively elucidated: the Service deficit, Perpetrator-victim, Deprivation, and Solitude loops. In each, two actors—the drug and the person who injects drugs—were constituted differently. Furthermore, the loops were interlinked and more fully understood in relation to one another, forming a network that reflected the broader environment of injection drug use (IDU) in Sweden. Each loop was shaped and co-constituted by the prohibitionist framing of Swedish drug policy influencing access to services, the drug market, and the position of people who use drugs. Conclusions: Understanding drug-related harms as risk-amplifying loops highlights the emergent effects of the multiple and unfolding risks in the lives of people who inject drugs. This perspective facilitates discussion of impediments to effective harm reduction practices and points to potential sites for countermeasures and policy reform.

Abstract

Background: The article demonstrates how substance use can enhance capacities for action in various everyday practices and function as a productive force rather than simply a risky and harmful activity.

Methods: The data set comprises 33 life story interviews in which the participants self-identified as having experienced an addiction to substances. The data was analyzed as ‘counter-narratives’ by drawing on actor-network theory.

Results: The analysis identified four typical variants of how substance use can increase capacities for action. First, substance use can initially enhance the capacities to achieve life goals and then transform into a mediator thatstrengthens attachments to normal daily activities. Secondly, substance use can become linked to serving mutually reinforcing trajectories in everyday life: assisting breaks from worries, reinforcing daily continuity, andadvancing life goals. Third, substance use can enable a sudden change in life direction by facilitating a radical transition to a new reality and subsequently stabilizing it. Fourth, substance use can evolve into a mediator that divides life into two assemblages: one that enables fulfillment of daily responsibilities and another that mediates freedom to pursue pleasure.

Conclusion: Generating knowledge about the relations, assemblages, and trajectories in which substance use actsas a productive force and identifying when and how it can become a mediator that limits, threatens, or impedesthe capacities of actors to live functional lives provides important information for health professionals andpractitioners. Such knowledge will deepen their understanding of the elements on which their prevention andtreatment efforts should focus.