Exploring addiction experiences through a sociological lens
| dc.contributor.advisor | De Wet, Katinka | |
| dc.contributor.author | Coetzee, Jano | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2021-05-18T10:22:18Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2021-05-18T10:22:18Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2020-11 | |
| dc.description.abstract | This study aimed to explore the lived addiction experiences of people recovering from addiction challenges through a sociological lens. As a theoretical and heuristic device, the sociological imagination functions primarily as the research study’s ontological framework to adequately illuminate the mentioned sociological lens. While mainstream studies of addiction tend to predominantly focus on psychological and/or medical perspectives, this research endeavour aimed to capture the significance of sociology in the context of addiction experiences. Mainstream disciplines in addiction research tend to locate addiction as a phenomenon that mainly occurs at the level of the individual, often creating a platform for stigmatisation and labelling. Contextual and situational aspects of people struggling with or recovering from addiction challenges tend to merely suffice as additional factors that might be considered as optional when conceptualising addiction. The sociology of addiction aims to conceptualise addiction as a complex social event that should be understood within its contextual significance. The current research study was conducted within the qualitative methodological framework. The primary aim was to construct narratives from the subjective experiences of people recovering from addiction challenges, ultimately capturing the sociological significance in their personal account of addiction experiences. Six research participants involving people recovering from addiction challenges were the primary sources of data for this research endeavour. The participants’ subjective account of addiction experiences was captured by using in-depth interviews, which mainly comprised of unstructured or open-ended questions to encourage an uninterrupted form of storytelling from the participants. The data was analysed using the narrative-thematic analysis technique, which ultimately allowed for the construction of themes to capture the participants’ lived addiction experiences and how they made meaning of these experiences. This analysis technique or method gave rise to three main themes and nine sub-themes. Through exploring addictive interpellation, the reality of addiction encounters, and addiction as a fabrication mechanism, sociocultural influences associated with addiction experiences illuminated the importance of socio-cultural change as a driving force of understanding addiction. To capture the significance of socio-environmental influences associated with addiction experiences, addiction as a remissive companion, sociologically imagining addiction onset and recovery, and the nature of relationships and identities within lived addiction experiences were themes that were explored and developed. To sociologically explore the gap of addiction ideology, the double bind of community and various body problems and illness narratives were used to make sense of the data. Finally, because of the addiction career's fluctuating nature, the suggestive “narrative of phronesis” was developed to attempt to capture the lived experiences of people who find themselves in the clutches of the addiction career. | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11660/11132 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher | University of the Free State | en_ZA |
| dc.rights.holder | University of the Free State | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Dissertation (M.Soc. Sc. (Sociology))--University of the Free State, 2020 | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Narrative | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Lived experiences | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Sociological imagination | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Addiction - Sociological aspects | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Addicts - Experiences of | en_ZA |
| dc.title | Exploring addiction experiences through a sociological lens | en_ZA |
| dc.type | Dissertation | en_ZA |