Emergent publics of alcohol and other drug policymaking

ABSTRACT

Alcohol and other drug (AOD) policy is developed within complex networks of social, economic, and political forces. One of the key ideas informing this development is that of the ‘public’ of AOD problems and policy solutions. To date, however, little scholarly attention has been paid to notions of the public in AOD policymaking. Precisely how are publics articulated by those tasked with policy development and implementation? In this article, we explore this question in detail. We analyze 60 qualitative interviews with Australian and Canadian AOD policymakers and service providers, arguing that publics figure in these interviews as pre-existing groups that must be managed – contained or educated – to allow policy to proceed. Drawing on Michael Warner’s work, we argue that publics should be understood instead as made in policy processes rather than as preceding them, and we conclude by reframing publics as emergent collectivities of interest. In closing, we briefly scrutinize the widely accepted model of good policy development, that of ‘consultation,’ arguing that, if publics are to be understood as emergent, and therefore policy’s opportunities as more open than is often suggested, a different figure – here that of ‘conference’ is tentatively suggested – may be required.

KEYWORDS:

• Policy
• drugs
• Michael Warner
• Australia
• Canada
• interviews

Acknowledgements

This article was prepared with the support of an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT120100215), awarded to Suzanne Fraser. The authors thank the participants for generously sharing their time and insights, and the journal editorial team and anonymous reviewers for comments on an earlier draft of this article. The National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University is supported by funding from the Australian Government under the Substance Misuse Prevention and Service Improvement Grants Fund.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The expression ‘alcohol and other drug’ is the standard way of referring to drugs in Australian research and policy. It was devised as a means of drawing attention to the place of alcohol as a drug (historically it has not been seen as part of the category of ‘drugs’), and to emphasize the primacy of alcohol in harms associated with drug use.

2. It is beyond the scope of this article to consider these factors in depth, but it is worth noting as do Adams and Hess (2001, 16) that ‘the political convergence around community may be seen as both a debate within neo-liberalism and as an alternative put forward by the opponents of liberalism.’

3. For example, we previously noted that some academic literature is concerned with the extent to which policymakers take into account the voices and concerns of ‘affected populations,’ and the extent to which policymaking processes are inclusive (e.g. Lancaster, Sutherland, and Ritter 2014; Lancaster, Ritter, and Sutherland 2013; Mathew-Simmons, Sunderland, and Ritter 2013; Kerr et al. 2006; Jürgens 2005). In contrast to our approach, some of that literature assumes (and thus constructs) pre-existing (albeit ‘bounded’) policy publics that should be consulted as a part of the policymaking endeavor.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Suzanne Fraser

Suzanne Fraser is Australian Research Council Future Fellow and program leader for the Social Studies of Addiction Concepts Research Program, National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University. She has published widely on drug use, the body, health, and the self. Her most recent book is Habits: Remaking Addiction (2014) (with David Moore and Helen Keane).

kylie valentine

kylie valentine is the Deputy Director of the Social Policy Research Centre, Faculty of Arts, University of New South Wales. Her research interests include the impact of human services policies and programs and the application of methods and concepts from the sociology of knowledge to new areas, with a focus on social disadvantage and exclusion. Her most recent book is Substance and Substitution: Methadone Subjects in Liberal Societies (2008) (with Suzanne Fraser).

Kate Seear

Kate Seear is a senior lecturer in law at Monash University and academic director of the Springvale Monash Legal Service. She is supported by an Australian Research Council DECRA fellowship (DE160100134). She is also an adjunct research fellow in the social studies of addiction concepts research program at the National Drug Research Institute, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University.