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Hunting for Harm: Risk-Knowledge Networks, Local Governance, and the Ottawa Needle Hunter Program*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2014

Kevin Walby
Kevin Walby
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6 Canada,kwalby@connect.carleton.ca
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Abstract

The Ottawa Needle Hunter Program was developed to clean up after the City of Ottawa's needle exchange. Needle hunters themselves are sometimes street involved and/or former intravenous drug users. Whereas harm reduction attempts to diminish overtly moralizing problematization of drug users, with awareness of wayward needles in urban areas the syringe is re-moralized, creating a moral terrain inhospitable to harm reduction. Needle hunting is not exactly harm reduction but, rather, a form of entrepreneurialism that harm-reduction programs must take on to manage their public reputation in unreceptive moral terrains. This study shows how the more entrepreneurial dimensions of harm reduction materialize at two levels: the needle-hunting project coordinator is made to govern possible risks on behalf of her needle-hunting workers, and the needle hunters become responsible for governing wayward needles. To conceptualize the work locations and knowledge networks involved in needle hunting, I draw from writings on nodal governance. Nodal governance scholars focus on a plurality of regulatory agencies, of which “the state” is only one, but often assume a levelling of hierarchy among these agencies. Supplementing the nodal governance approach through more attention to hierarchy within and among work nodes, as well as through attention to the role of objects in governance processes, I inquire into the risk-knowledge networks that draw together agencies that account for and collect used needles around Ottawa, Canada.

Résumé

Le Programme de ramassage des aiguilles d'Ottawa a été développé dans le but de ramasser les seringues jetées par les usagers du service d'échange d'aiguilles de la Ville d'Ottawa. Les ramasseurs d'aiguilles sont, eux-mêmes, impliqués parfois dans les activités de la rue ou encore des anciens utilisateurs de drogues injectables. Tandis que les mesures visant la réduction des méfaits cherchent à contrer les discours moralisateurs à propos des utilisateurs de drogues, le fait que le public est conscientisé sur la question des seringues jetées dans les milieux urbains a pour conséquence une re-moralisation de la seringue, créant ainsi un contexte moral qui est défavorable à la réduction des méfaits. L'action de ramasser les aiguilles ne constitue pas exactement une forme de réduction des méfaits. Cette action représente plutôt une mesure que les programmes de réduction des méfaits doivent employée afin de maintenir leur réputation dans des milieux hostiles. Cet article souligne comment les grandes activités reliées à la réduction des méfaits sont représentées de deux manières: le coordonnateur du projet de ramassage des aiguilles a le devoir de gouverner les risques encourus par les ramasseurs d'aiguilles tandis que les ramasseurs d'aiguilles doivent gouverner les seringues jetées. Afin de conceptualiser les endroits de travail ainsi que les réseaux de connaissance impliqués dans le ramassage d'aiguilles, je m'appuis sur des textes de la gouvernance nodale. Les spécialistes de la gouvernance nodale centrent leurs écrits sur la pluralité des agences réglementaires. Ces auteurs supposent que les différentes agences, dont le gouvernement ne représente seulement qu'une, sont organisées selon une certaine hiérarchie. En plus de me pencher sur les hiérarchies à l'intérieur des différents nodes de travail ainsi que sur le rôle des objets dans le processus de gouvernance, j'examine aussi les réseaux qui se spécialisent sur la question du risque, notamment les agences qui sont responsables de ramasser les seringues jetées aux alentours d'Ottawa, Canada.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Law and Society / La Revue Canadienne Droit et Société , Volume 23 , Issue 1-2 , April 2008 , pp. 161 - 178
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Law and Society Association 2008

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