Putting the party down on paper: A novel method for mapping youth drug use in private settings
Introduction
Laus [pointing at a map-task drawing on the table]: Here’s the couch and here’s the coffee table. Kristoffer is sitting in the couch acting cool with his girlfriend, we arrive [at his house] and he asks if we want a line [of cocaine]. We take the line and then go to the kitchen, where another mate has just prepared a new set of lines […] then you go over and start talking to people.
Taken from an interview with two young recreational drug users, this quotation evokes the beginnings of a private house party. The interview was conducted in 2008 as part of a study of youth recreational drug use in Denmark. The study focussed on the social experience of clubbing and taking drugs, although the interviews quickly revealed that clubs and bars were not the only social settings for recreational drug use. Equally important were private house parties like the one referred to in the quote above. In fact, for some of the most drug-experienced participants private settings were the preferred arena for drug use, mainly because of the absence of more formal modes of (adult) surveillance and control in these spaces. While many participants regarded private settings as safer, more “controllable” settings for drug use, many also alluded to a range of health and social risks associated with this ‘private’ drug use. This called for an investigation of the place and social context (Duff, 2014) of private parties, even though expanding the study to include these settings posed a number of methodological challenges. This article explores some of these challenges in assessing a novel tool, called “map-task”, for investigating private settings of youth drug use. We explore the key features of this method, and explore how it may to used to conduct observations ‘from a distance’ in hard-to-access settings like private parties. Further, we argue that the ‘map-task’ has a number of analytical and logistical advantages for scholars interested in generating rich, contextualised data on the health and social impacts of ‘hidden phenomena’ (Watters and Biernacki, 1989) such as youth drug use.
Studies of youth drug use have long indicated the importance of private spaces and settings in framing the ways in which young people consume illicit drugs, as well as the health and social risks and harms that may be associated with this consumption (Duff et al., 2007, Parker et al., 1998). Closed off as they are from harm reduction or security interventions, private settings such as homes and house parties are thought to constitute unique “risk environments” (Rhodes, 2002), compared to the bars, clubs and raves that have been much more extensively investigated (Hunt et al., 2011). There is some evidence that young people consume a wider range of illicit drugs, and in higher volumes, in private settings compared with public spaces (Race, 2009). Furthermore, private setting may be particularly attractive among more drug-experienced and/or drug-focused groups presenting unique health and social risks (Järvinen and Ravn, 2011). Likewise, private settings are known for ‘pre-loading’ in which individuals consume alcohol before going out, often implying a higher level of total consumption during the drinking event (McClatchley et al., 2014, Østergaard and Skov, 2014). Other evidence, however, points to reduced incidence of fights, accidents and injuries in private settings compared with public ones (Duff et al., 2007). Despite the significance of private settings in the context of young people’s drug use, little is known about how private settings mediate youth drug use, what kinds of risk and protective factors may be important in such settings, and what kinds of public health and/or harm reduction strategies, if any, may be feasible in private settings. By assessing a novel method for mapping private spaces of youth drug use, this article will begin to indicate how these problems might be accommodated in studies of youth drug use, and in health and social policy responses to this drug use more broadly. We start by situating the map-task in the qualitative methods literature, before presenting preliminary data derived from its use in the Danish study noted above to illustrate the kinds of insights the task can engender.
Section snippets
Studying “hard to access” places and contexts
One of the great, enduring challenges for health and social researchers is how to produce knowledge regarding ‘hard-to-access’ populations, commonly understood to describe groups that are difficult to reach or engage in research (Watters and Biernacki, 1989). Challenges associated with gaining access to sites for social research have been identified in numerous social science disciplines, just as these disciplines have produced their own methodological, procedural and/or logistical responses to
Discussion
Most accounts of qualitative methods, particularly ethnographic methods, emphasise the importance of gaining physical access to the research field (see Corbin and Strauss, 2008, Bondy, 2013, Reeves, 2010). Indeed, it is notable that alternatives to ‘being there’ in the field are seldom discussed in the literature. This preoccupation with being present reflects a long-held distinction in qualitative methods between ‘what people say’ and ‘what people do’ (Atkinson and Coffey, 2001). Consistent
Conclusion
Notwithstanding the limitations outlined here, our experience confirms that the map-task technique is well-suited for conducting observations ‘from a distance’ in hard-to-access settings, particularly in sites featuring stable and discrete spatial and temporal boundaries. Furthermore, and as the examples included in this article indicate, the task has a number of analytical advantages for researchers interested in gathering highly contextualised data on the characteristic health and social
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