Selections of Reality: Applying Burke's Dramatism to a Harm Reduction Policy

Margaretha Järvinen; Gale Miller

doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2014.02.014

Selections of Reality: Applying Burke's Dramatism to a Harm Reduction Policy

Margaretha Järvinen, Gale Miller

5 Citationer (Scopus)

373 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Kenneth Burke's dramatistic perspective is applied to accounts told by staff members working in methadone maintenance treatment centres in Copenhagen, Denmark. As a harm reduction strategy, methadone maintenance is designed to reduce the costs and dangers of chronic long-term drug use by providing substitution (methadone) treatment to users. Burke's dramatistic perspective calls attention to the recurring relationships among rhetorical elements within accounts of social reality. The elements form a pentad: scene, purpose, agent, agency and acts. Our analysis examines how the ideal of governmentality is constructed by staff members to justify and criticize the operations of the Copenhagen methadone maintenance program. For Burke, social criticism involves rearranging pentadic elements to produce new meanings and justify alternative actions. We discuss how Burke's perspective might be developed by sociologists as a critical dramatism of social policies and programs.

Originalsprog	Engelsk
Tidsskrift	International Journal of Drug Policy
Vol/bind	25
Udgave nummer	5
Sider (fra-til)	879-887
ISSN	0955-3959
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2014.02.014
Status	Udgivet - 2014

Adgang til dokumentet

10.1016/j.drugpo.2014.02.014

Selections of Reality

Citationsformater

@article{b6d5525c6c8e4eb68b82ffbbfcd4a0a9,

title = "Selections of Reality: Applying Burke's Dramatism to a Harm Reduction Policy",

abstract = "Kenneth Burke's dramatistic perspective is applied to accounts told by staff members working in methadone maintenance treatment centres in Copenhagen, Denmark. As a harm reduction strategy, methadone maintenance is designed to reduce the costs and dangers of chronic long-term drug use by providing substitution (methadone) treatment to users. Burke's dramatistic perspective calls attention to the recurring relationships among rhetorical elements within accounts of social reality. The elements form a pentad: scene, purpose, agent, agency and acts. Our analysis examines how the ideal of governmentality is constructed by staff members to justify and criticize the operations of the Copenhagen methadone maintenance program. For Burke, social criticism involves rearranging pentadic elements to produce new meanings and justify alternative actions. We discuss how Burke's perspective might be developed by sociologists as a critical dramatism of social policies and programs.",

author = "Margaretha J{\"a}rvinen and Gale Miller",

year = "2014",

doi = "10.1016/j.drugpo.2014.02.014",

language = "English",

volume = "25",

pages = "879--887",

journal = "International Journal of Drug Policy",

issn = "0955-3959",

publisher = "Elsevier",

number = "5",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Selections of Reality

T2 - Applying Burke's Dramatism to a Harm Reduction Policy

AU - Järvinen, Margaretha

AU - Miller, Gale

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - Kenneth Burke's dramatistic perspective is applied to accounts told by staff members working in methadone maintenance treatment centres in Copenhagen, Denmark. As a harm reduction strategy, methadone maintenance is designed to reduce the costs and dangers of chronic long-term drug use by providing substitution (methadone) treatment to users. Burke's dramatistic perspective calls attention to the recurring relationships among rhetorical elements within accounts of social reality. The elements form a pentad: scene, purpose, agent, agency and acts. Our analysis examines how the ideal of governmentality is constructed by staff members to justify and criticize the operations of the Copenhagen methadone maintenance program. For Burke, social criticism involves rearranging pentadic elements to produce new meanings and justify alternative actions. We discuss how Burke's perspective might be developed by sociologists as a critical dramatism of social policies and programs.

AB - Kenneth Burke's dramatistic perspective is applied to accounts told by staff members working in methadone maintenance treatment centres in Copenhagen, Denmark. As a harm reduction strategy, methadone maintenance is designed to reduce the costs and dangers of chronic long-term drug use by providing substitution (methadone) treatment to users. Burke's dramatistic perspective calls attention to the recurring relationships among rhetorical elements within accounts of social reality. The elements form a pentad: scene, purpose, agent, agency and acts. Our analysis examines how the ideal of governmentality is constructed by staff members to justify and criticize the operations of the Copenhagen methadone maintenance program. For Burke, social criticism involves rearranging pentadic elements to produce new meanings and justify alternative actions. We discuss how Burke's perspective might be developed by sociologists as a critical dramatism of social policies and programs.

U2 - 10.1016/j.drugpo.2014.02.014

DO - 10.1016/j.drugpo.2014.02.014

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 24702965

SN - 0955-3959

VL - 25

SP - 879

EP - 887

JO - International Journal of Drug Policy

JF - International Journal of Drug Policy

IS - 5

ER -

Selections of Reality: Applying Burke's Dramatism to a Harm Reduction Policy

Abstract

Adgang til dokumentet

Fingeraftryk

Citationsformater