The politics of photographic aesthetics: critically documenting the HIV epidemic among heroin injectors in Russia and the United States

Schonberg, Jeffrey

doi:10.1016/s0955-3959(02)00121-4

Cited by 18 publications

(17 citation statements)

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“…The ethnic components of habitus thereby become an integral dimension of the symbolic violence that legitimizes and administers social hierarchy in the United States, where popular common sense understands subordination as being justified by the moral worth of racial essences. At the same time, writing and photographing ethnically patterned habitus risks reifying the very same stereotypical racialization that we are critiquing (Schonberg and Bourgois, 2002). The concept of intimate apartheid draws on an analysis of the ethnic components of habitus.…”

Section: Habitus Culture and Social Inequalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Intimate apartheid

Schonberg

2007

Ethnography

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Ten years of participant-observation fieldwork and photography among a multi-ethnic social network of homeless heroin injectors and crack smokers in California reveal hierarchical interpersonal relations between African Americans, whites and Latinos despite the fact that they all share a physical addiction to heroin and live in indigent poverty in the same encampments. Focusing on tensions between blacks and whites, we develop the concept of 'ethnicized habitus' to understand how divisions drawn on the basis of skin color are enforced through everyday interaction to produce 'intimate apartheid' in the context of physical proximity and shared destitution. Specifically, we examine how two components of ethnic habitus are generated. One is a simple technique of the body, a preference for intravenous versus intramuscular or subcutaneous heroin injection. The second revolves around income-generation strategies and is more obviously related to external power constraints. Both these components fit into a larger constellation of ethnic distinction rooted in historically entrenched political, economic and ideological forces. An understanding of the generative forces of the ethnic dimensions of habitus allows us to recognize how macro-power relations produce intimate desires and ways of being that become inscribed on individual bodies and routinized in behavior. These distinctions are, for the most part, interpreted as natural attributes of genetics and culture by many people in the United States, justifying a racialized moral hierarchy. KeywordsUnited States; urban poverty; crack; substance abuse; injection drug use At first sight, street corners where homeless heroin addicts congregate in San Francisco look like a whirlwind of multicultural diversity. Indeed, one might think that physical and psychological addiction to the point of indigence would reduce humans to some sort of common -if not solidary -essence. The decade that we have spent conducting participant-observation research among a social network of approximately two dozen homeless heroin injectors who also smoke crack and drink alcohol, however, reveals deep divisions across ethnic lines that are interpreted racially. The group of homeless we have been studying is composed of African American, Latino, and white men and women in advanced middle age. They represent the NIH Public Access

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Section: Habitus Culture and Social Inequalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Intimate apartheid

Schonberg

2007

Ethnography

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“…Method among Women Living with HIV/AIDS: Ethical Opportunities and Challenges who are pictured in them, and how the images are interpreted by the public (Gross, Katz, & Ruby, 1988;Nutbrown, 2011;Schonberg & Bourgois, 2002;Wang & Redwood-Jones, 2001). Examining the balance between the ethical opportunities and challenges raised by using photovoice is critical to maximizing the benefits of photovoice as an HIV-related CBPR strategy.…”

Section: Photovoice As a Community-based Participatory Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photovoice as a Community-Based Participatory Research Method among Women Living with HIV/AIDS: Ethical Opportunities and Challenges

Teti

Murray

Johnson

et al. 2012

Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics

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Photovoice is a method in which participants use photography to identify, express, and disseminate their experiences. We conducted photovoice projects with women living with HIV/AIDS (N=21) to explore opportunities and challenges associated with the method. Photovoice provided a means to achieve two key principles of ethical public health practice: It gives participants opportunities to define their health priorities, and facilitates participant empowerment. Ethical challenges that were encountered related to exposing, through photographs, one's identity as living with HIV/AIDS, illicit activities, and other people. We discuss lessons learned for future practice to maximize the ethical opportunities and manage the challenges associated with using photovoice as an HIV-related CBPR strategy.

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“…Bourgois' main concern is that his images of the world of marginalised drug users confront social suffering in ways that create a level of social perception. ‘Strong photographs oblige viewers to ask questions about what is going on outside of the borders of the image – a suggestive lack of information can provide the impetus for critical thinking fuelled by personal interpretation’ (Schonberg and Bourgois, 2002: 388, my emphasis). But critical social engagement also requires ‘an emotional aesthetic – empathy, horror, awareness and anger’ (Schonberg and Bourgois, 2002: 388).…”

Section: The Politics Of Drug Photographymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the one hand, he is critical of the photographer's standpoint as a ‘pornographic voyeur’; ‘the upper class spying on the lower class with their cameras. It is much easier to shoot down than it is to shoot up’ (Schonberg and Bourgois, 2002: 389). On the other, he is concerned about the risk posed by photographs of marginalisation, suffering and destruction; ‘letting a picture speak a thousand words can result in a thousand lies’ (2002: 388).…”

Section: The Politics Of Drug Photographymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rather than being under‐theorized, I believe that my quotes and conversations with the street level participants in East Harlem's drug economy were edited, framed and introduced in a manner that, if anything, clobbers the reader on almost every page with political‐economic arguments. (Schonberg and Bourgois, 2002: 227–8)…”

Section: The Politics Of Drug Photographymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Contesting Compassion

Vitellone¹

2011

The Sociological Review

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This paper investigates the political possibilities and limitations of compassion. My aim is to consider how and under what conditions compassion is elicited and whether such emotions can institute social transformation. Whilst compassion is understood to be located in political and cultural contexts, this paper investigates the extent to which compassion shapes those contexts in terms of political imaginaries. Drawing on the work of Bourdieu I consider the ways that compassion positions people in relations with 'sufferers' affectively, including shaping perceptions and understandings of causes and effects. To illustrate this I examine visual representations of drug use, one from a Barnardo's child poverty advertising campaign and the other a photo-ethnography of drug suffering. Focusing on the imagery of the syringe as a moving device I show how the object reworks the affect of compassion in ways that require critique and contestation.

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The politics of photographic aesthetics: critically documenting the HIV epidemic among heroin injectors in Russia and the United States

Cited by 18 publications

References 1 publication

Intimate apartheid

Intimate apartheid

Photovoice as a Community-Based Participatory Research Method among Women Living with HIV/AIDS: Ethical Opportunities and Challenges

Contesting Compassion

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