This open access book explores how young people engage with chemical
substances in their everyday lives. It builds upon and supplements a
large body of literature on young people's use of drugs and alcohol to
highlight the subjectivities and socialities that chemical use enables
across diverse socio-cultural settings, illustrating how young people
seek to avoid harm, while harnessing the beneficial effects of chemical
use.
The book is based on multi-sited anthropological research in Southeast
Asia, Europe and the US, and presents insights from collaborative and
contrasting analysis. Hardon brings new perspectives to debates across
drug policy studies, pharmaceutical cultures and regulation, science and
technology studies, and youth and precarity in post-industrial
societies.