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Why do they call me Khiya?: gender and identity construction amongst people injecting drugs in Thailand
thesis
posted on 2022-03-28, 20:40 authored by Niphattra HaritavornInjecting drug users worldwide are often ensnared in a web of problems arising largely from what is commonly termed 'structural violence', a phenomenon that causes suffering and renders injecting drug users vulnerable to a range of social dilemmas and health threats. Political and social forces, which range from oppressive drug control policies to widespread stigma to discrimination, combine to marginalise injecting drug users and contribute to the sense of alienation that isolates users from non-users. These distancing processes become a potent barrier that excludes many users from pursuing conventional social lives and activities within mainstream society. -- Understanding widespread injecting drug use and abuse in Thailand requires exploration of its linkage with all levels of society. The thesis examines how political-economy forces at the macro level have shaped the meaning of drug use and drug epidemics; as well, it explores the pressures that drug users are subjected to at the micro level within family and other interpersonal relations. Particular emphasis is upon HIV infection, its spread, and how Thailand's drug users have invented a range of tactics that aim to lessen the impact of social rejection associated with disease and allow them to maintain their drug use behaviour. Women injecting drug users in particular, are caught in a difficult tension between the demands of being a Thai woman seeking to exist in a masculinised world of drug users and meeting Thai society's expectations of womanhood. Harm reduction programs may prove the means of facilitating drug users' increased public profile. This thesis also explores how new social movements allow drug users to engage in a habitable social space and fashion new forms of subjective identity.
History
Alternative Title
Gender and identity construction amongst people injecting drugs in ThailandTable of Contents
Introduction: Approaching the meanings of drugs -- Political economy of illicit drugs in Thailand -- Violence and suffering: the everyday lives of Thai drug users -- Management of sleves: survival tactics -- Gender drug use -- Harm reduction, social movement, and space -- Conclusion.Notes
September 2011 Bibliography: p. [203]-229Awarding Institution
Macquarie UniversityDegree Type
Thesis PhDDegree
Thesis (PhD), Macquarie University, Faculty of Arts, Dept. of AnthropologyDepartment, Centre or School
Department of AnthropologyYear of Award
2012Principal Supervisor
Chris LyttletonRights
Copyright disclaimer: http://www.copyright.mq.edu.au Copyright Niphattra Haritavorn 2012.Language
EnglishExtent
1 online resource (xiv, 231 p.) col. illFormer Identifiers
mq:71933 http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/1279652Usage metrics
Categories
Keywords
HIV AIDSDrug addictsSocial problems -- ThailandDrug addicts -- Thailand -- Social conditionsSocial isolationSocial isolation -- ThailandThailandharm reductionDrug abuseSocial problemsgenderstigmaDrug abuse -- Sex differences -- Thailandinjecting drug usersIntravenous drug abuseIntravenous drug abuse -- Social aspects -- Thailand