Fast Lives: Women Who Use Crack Cocaine - Softcover

Sterk, Claire

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1566396727 ISBN 13: 9781566396721

Verlag: Temple University Press,U.S., 1999

Inhaltsangabe

Providing insight into drug use from the point of view of female users, this book tells of the complex lives, challenges, and choices of women who use crack cocaine. While popular images of these women present them simply as unreliable individuals, unfit mothers, and women who will do almost anything for crack, Claire Sterk's years of ethnographic research reveal the nature and meaning of crack cocaine use in the larger context of their lives -- including the impact of such issues as gender, class, and race. Focusing on active crack users, Fast Lives compiles information from participant observation, informal conversations, individual interviews, and group discussions. Sterk details the ways in which use affects the lives of these crack users. She captures how these women arrived at their use; how they survive under current circumstances, such as the constant threat of HIV/AIDS and violence; how they combine the multiple social roles of mother and drug user; and how -- as they share their aspirations and expectations for the future -- their stories underscore the effects of poverty, sexism, and racism on their lives. Many of these women recognize their own responsibility for ensuring positive change. Sterk's book, which includes an argument for a harm reduction approach, reminds us that their strength and courage will too often be futile without social policies that are realistic and appropriate for women. Fast Lives will engage readers interested in social problems as well as students of cultural anthropology, sociology, criminology, public health, ethnography, substance abuse, and women's health.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Claire E. Sterk is Associate Professor of Public Health at Emory University.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Temple University Press,U.S.
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1566396727
• ISBN 13: 9781566396721
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Sprache: Englisch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 242
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar