Practising recovery: New approaches and directions.

Area of Science:

• Sociology of health and illness
• Addiction studies
• Qualitative research methodologies

Background:

• Recovery from alcohol and other drugs (AOD) is a significant area of research and policy.
• Existing research often focuses on AOD recovery as a policy, overlooking its daily, practical manifestations.
• Service users and workers engage in diverse, daily practices of recovery not fully captured by current sociological studies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the varied epistemological, methodological, and policy practices in empirical studies of AOD recovery.
• To shift focus from AOD recovery as a policy to recovery as a daily practice and complex healing process.
• To explore the social, temporal, spatial, and affective dimensions of practicing recovery.

Main Methods:

• Practice-oriented study of recovery as a complex process of healing.
• Analysis of empirical studies on recovery from alcohol and other drugs (AOD).
• Focus on routine aspects and ambivalences in the practice and research of recovery.

Main Results:

• Recovery from alcohol and other drugs (AOD) is characterized by infinite, daily manifestations by service users and workers.
• Framing recovery as a social, temporal, spatial, and affective practice reveals its complexity.
• Empirical engagements with recovery highlight ambivalences in both the practice and its research methods.

Conclusions:

• Sociological research can advance understanding of illness and wellbeing by studying recovery as a practice.
• Recognizing the ambivalences in recovery practices and research expands its conceptualization.
• A practice-oriented approach offers new directions for studying recovery from alcohol and other drugs (AOD).