Migrating identities: the relational constitution of drug use and addiction

This paper aims to develop a properly social conceptualisation of addiction through drawing on analyses of rich, in-depth data from ex/users of heroin. Practices of addiction are considered as in and of themselves constitutive of particular identities, ways of being, and ways of being with and for others. The discussion seeks to demonstrate how heroin use is predicated upon, and productive of, purposeful drug-using relationships in which users produce and reproduce the conditions for continued use (e.g. scoring, grafting, using). Accordingly, the concept of 'dependence' is here reconfigured to encompass both dependence on the provision (and ingestion) of drugs and, simultaneously, dependence upon diverse configurations of users, clinicians, support workers, and so on. The paper makes a critical departure from existing debates in which addiction, even if conceived as a social practice, is nonetheless understood at the level of 'the individual'. It is argued that this tendency towards ontological individualism leads towards conceiving the problem of addiction as residing predominantly in the individual negotiation and, ultimately, resolution of identity narratives. The analyses presented here explore how the migration from addict to non-addict involves more than identity work. Theorisations of the level of 'field' or 'configuration' are developed, and considered as both a level of analysis and a conceptual lens for understanding changes in the ongoing, relational, practices involved in such identity migration. Finally, the consequences of intersecting, relational, dimensions of time horizons, place and space in the talk of ex/users are considered for strategies for successful recovery, identified during the research.