Robyn Dwyer | La Trobe University (original) (raw)
Papers by Robyn Dwyer
Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy, 2016
The Lancet. Infectious diseases, 2015
The Medical journal of Australia, Jan 16, 1992
Methamphetamine use in Australia has recently attracted considerable attention due to increased h... more Methamphetamine use in Australia has recently attracted considerable attention due to increased human
and social costs. Despite evidences indicating increasing methamphetamine-related harm and significant
numbers of frequent and dependent users, methamphetamine treatment coverage remains low in Australia.
This paper aims to investigate the complex interplay between methamphetamine use and treatment-related
access by designing an agent-based model, using epidemiological data and expert-derived assumptions. This
paper presents the architecture and core mechanisms of an agent-based model, TreatMethHarm, and details
the results of model calibration performed by testing the key model parameters. At this stage of development,
TreatMethHarm is able to produce proportions of methamphetamine users that replicate those produced by
our epidemiological survey. However, this agent-based model still requires additional information and further
tests before validation. TreatMethHarm provides a useful tool to elicit dialogue between researchers from different
disciplines, integrate a variety of data and identify missing information.
Human practices of all kinds – substance use, gambling, sex, even eating – are increasingly being... more Human practices of all kinds – substance use, gambling, sex, even eating – are increasingly being reframed through the language of addiction. This ‘addicting’ of contemporary society is achieved, in part, through the screening and diagnostic tools intended to identify and measure addiction. These tools are a key element in the expert knowledge-making through which realities of addiction emerge. Promoted as objective and accurate, the tools are given legitimacy through application of scientific validation techniques. In this article, we critically examine the operations of these validation techniques as applied to substance addiction tools. Framed by feminist and other scholarship that decentres the epistemological guarantees of objectivity and validity, we structure our analysis using Ian Hacking’s (1999) concepts of ‘refuting’ (showing a thesis to be false) and ‘unmasking’ (undermining a thesis). Under ‘refuting’, we consider the methodological validation processes on their own terms, identifying contradictory claims, weak findings and inconsistent application of methodological standards. Under ‘unmasking’, we critically analyse validation as a concept in itself. Here we identify two fundamental problems: symptom learning and feedback effects; and circularity and assumptions of independence and objectivity. Our analysis also highlights the extra-theoretical functions and effects of the tools. Both on their own terms and when subjected to more searching analysis, then, the validity claims the tools make fail to hold up to scrutiny. In concluding, we consider some of the effects of the processes we identify. Not only do these tools make certainty where there is none, we contend, they actively participate in the creation of social objects and social groups, and in shaping affected individuals and their opportunities. In unpacking in detail the legitimacy of the tools, our aim is to open up for further scrutiny the processes by which they go about making (rather than merely reflecting) the disease of addiction.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 2009
Background: Public drug markets and injecting impose significant burden on individuals and the c... more Background: Public drug markets and injecting impose significant burden on individuals and
the community. This study aimed to document public injecting and amenity in North
Richmond, an inner-city suburb of Melbourne, Australia.
Methods: A rapid assessment methodology was employed. Data comprised: secondary data on
drug use indicators, structured observations and interviews with key stakeholders. Primary data
were collected from May to October 2012. Quantitative data are summarised using descriptive
statistics. Basic content analysis was performed on interview transcripts.
Results: An average of 1843 needle–syringes (NS) were collected per month from syringe disposal
bins and street-sweeps in the period January–December 2012. Discarded NS and other
injecting paraphernalia were observed in a variety of locations. Stakeholder interviews
indicated substantial concerns over the presence of NS and witnessing injecting and overdose.
Discussion: Public injecting is widespread, frequent, and highly visible in North Richmond and
has a substantial negative effect on public amenity. The research identified two main priorities:
(1) enhance access to harm reduction services and materials; and (2) improve public amenity.
Among other responses, the study findings support the introduction of a supervised injecting
facility (SIF) as a viable component of a comprehensive harm reduction response to illicit drug
use in this area.
PhD Thesis. Curtin University. , 2009
Despite substantial government, media and public attention and concern over public injecting in N... more Despite substantial government, media and public attention and concern over public injecting in North Richmond, there has been no recent and comprehensive analysis of the impact of injecting drug use in the area.
International Journal of Drug Policy, Special Focus Issue: Articulating Science and Technology Studies for Drug Policy Research. 24 (3): 203-211., 2013
Popular Anthropology Magazine, 2011
Fraser, S. & Moore, D. (eds). The Drug Effect: Health, Crime and Society, 2011
heroin exchanges between marketplace participants, I show that drug markets are animated by the b... more heroin exchanges between marketplace participants, I show that drug markets are animated by the behaviour of market actors, with this behaviour constituted through social relations, power differentials and cultural understandings. Linking the cigarette exchanges between myself and my informants with the heroin exchanges between drug marketplace participants locates the latter exchanges in more generalised processes of social exchange and situates drug market behaviour within wider social and cultural practices.
International Journal of Drug Policy, Jan 1, 2010
The dominant Australian approaches to understanding illicit drug marketplaces are surveillance an... more The dominant Australian approaches to understanding illicit drug marketplaces are surveillance and criminological research. These approaches rely on the neoclassical economic model of the market which focuses primarily on supply and demand. In this paper, we draw on anthropological and sociological research to develop an alternative framework for understanding Australian illicit drug marketplaces that emphasises their constituent processes. Methods: The paper draws on two years of ethnographic research among heroin user/sellers of Vietnamese ethnicity in an Australian heroin marketplace. Results: Trade and barter were key modes of exchange in this marketplace. We identified active negotiation and bargaining over price on the basis of social relationships, with dealers and customers actively working to develop and maintain such ties. Dealers set price collectively and this was shaped by moral and cultural elements such as notions of a 'fair' price. Social processes and relations as well as shared cultural expectations helped to generate trust and maintain order in the marketplace. Conclusion: Our ethnographic research suggests that the dominant Australian approaches to the study of illicit drug markets, with their reliance on the elementary neoclassical economic market model, ignore the social processes and social relations through which such sites are made and remade. Nor do they adequately capture the complex character of the subjects who act within these sites. If we are to expand our 1 POSTPRINT. SOURCE: Dwyer, R. & Moore, D. (2010). Beyond neoclassical economics: Social process, agency and the maintenance of order in an Australian illicit drug marketplace. The International Journal of Drug Policy. 21 (5): 390-398.
British Journal of Criminology, Jan 1, 2010
The dominant Australian approaches to understanding illicit drug marketplaces are surveillance an... more The dominant Australian approaches to understanding illicit drug marketplaces are surveillance and criminological research. These approaches rely on the neoclassical economic model of the market which focuses primarily on supply and demand. In this paper, we draw on anthropological and sociological research to develop an alternative framework for understanding Australian illicit drug marketplaces that emphasises their constituent processes. Methods: The paper draws on two years of ethnographic research among heroin user/sellers of Vietnamese ethnicity in an Australian heroin marketplace. Results: Trade and barter were key modes of exchange in this marketplace. We identified active negotiation and bargaining over price on the basis of social relationships, with dealers and customers actively working to develop and maintain such ties. Dealers set price collectively and this was shaped by moral and cultural elements such as notions of a 'fair' price. Social processes and relations as well as shared cultural expectations helped to generate trust and maintain order in the marketplace. Conclusion: Our ethnographic research suggests that the dominant Australian approaches to the study of illicit drug markets, with their reliance on the elementary neoclassical economic market model, ignore the social processes and social relations through which such sites are made and remade. Nor do they adequately capture the complex character of the subjects who act within these sites. If we are to expand our 1 POSTPRINT. SOURCE: Dwyer, R. & Moore, D. (2010). Beyond neoclassical economics: Social process, agency and the maintenance of order in an Australian illicit drug marketplace. The International Journal of Drug Policy. 21 (5): 390-398.
Addiction Research & …, Jan 1, 2011
... Robyn Dwyer 1 , Suzanne Fraser 2 * , Carla Treloar 1 1 National Centre in HIV Social Research... more ... Robyn Dwyer 1 , Suzanne Fraser 2 * , Carla Treloar 1 1 National Centre in HIV Social Research, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. 2 Centre for Women's Studies and Gender Research, School ...
In Allsop, S. & Lee, N (eds.), Perspectives on Amphetamine Type Stimulants, I.P. Communications., 2012
International Journal of Drug Policy, Jan 1, 2008
Background: Pleasure and its pursuit provide the key explanatory frame in this ethnographic analy... more Background: Pleasure and its pursuit provide the key explanatory frame in this ethnographic analysis of temazepam injection among a set of drug injectors who enthusiastically embrace high-risk practices. The foregrounding of pleasure challenges key assumptions of harm reduction: namely, the 'rational' subject and the privileging of health as a universal good. In this paper I problematise the concepts of pleasure and conventional understandings of rationality. Interrogating these concepts through the actions and accounts of temazepam injectors, I argue that the model of the subject implicit in harm reduction does not sufficiently account for their everyday social practices. Methods: The paper draws on ethnographic research among heroin user/sellers of Vietnamese ethnicity in a local Australian heroin marketplace.
BMj, Jan 1, 1998
To estimate the incidence of HIV and hepatitis C virus and risk factors for seroconversion among ... more To estimate the incidence of HIV and hepatitis C virus and risk factors for seroconversion among a cohort of injecting drug users. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: Primary healthcare facility in central Sydney.
AIDS Education and …, Jan 1, 1994
Although there is growing evidence of differences between women and men who inject drugs (IDUs) i... more Although there is growing evidence of differences between women and men who inject drugs (IDUs) in terms of level of risk for HIV infection, very little research has been conducted specifically addressing the risk practices of women IDUs. This study formed part of a national study of HIV infection risks in IDUs and the purpose of the present analysis was an exploration of gender differences in HIV risk practices, focusing on the HIV risk practices of IDU women. 1,245 IDUs from the inner city area of Sydney took part in this study. Of these, 908 were men and 331 were women. Notable results were that female respondents were more likely to report sharing needles, they injected heroin more times in a typical using month and were more likely to have shared with someone they later found out was HIV seropositive. Female respondents also reported more sexual partners than men, were more likely to engage in prostitution, and were more likely to have sexual partners who were themselves IDUs. The results provide support for the proposition that women who inject drugs may be at greater risk of HIV infection through both their drug taking and their sexual practices. Further research is needed to explore the reasons underlying the risk practices of women who inject drugs and an understanding of these factors needs to be incorporated into HIV risk-reduction and drug harm-reduction policies and programs.
Addiction, Jan 1, 2001
Introduction Previous studies have explored the conditions surrounding research participation for... more Introduction Previous studies have explored the conditions surrounding research participation for respon-dent groups as divergent as clinical trial sub-jects,1 university students2 and children.3 The main focus of this literature has been upon theoretical dimensions of ...
Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy, 2016
The Lancet. Infectious diseases, 2015
The Medical journal of Australia, Jan 16, 1992
Methamphetamine use in Australia has recently attracted considerable attention due to increased h... more Methamphetamine use in Australia has recently attracted considerable attention due to increased human
and social costs. Despite evidences indicating increasing methamphetamine-related harm and significant
numbers of frequent and dependent users, methamphetamine treatment coverage remains low in Australia.
This paper aims to investigate the complex interplay between methamphetamine use and treatment-related
access by designing an agent-based model, using epidemiological data and expert-derived assumptions. This
paper presents the architecture and core mechanisms of an agent-based model, TreatMethHarm, and details
the results of model calibration performed by testing the key model parameters. At this stage of development,
TreatMethHarm is able to produce proportions of methamphetamine users that replicate those produced by
our epidemiological survey. However, this agent-based model still requires additional information and further
tests before validation. TreatMethHarm provides a useful tool to elicit dialogue between researchers from different
disciplines, integrate a variety of data and identify missing information.
Human practices of all kinds – substance use, gambling, sex, even eating – are increasingly being... more Human practices of all kinds – substance use, gambling, sex, even eating – are increasingly being reframed through the language of addiction. This ‘addicting’ of contemporary society is achieved, in part, through the screening and diagnostic tools intended to identify and measure addiction. These tools are a key element in the expert knowledge-making through which realities of addiction emerge. Promoted as objective and accurate, the tools are given legitimacy through application of scientific validation techniques. In this article, we critically examine the operations of these validation techniques as applied to substance addiction tools. Framed by feminist and other scholarship that decentres the epistemological guarantees of objectivity and validity, we structure our analysis using Ian Hacking’s (1999) concepts of ‘refuting’ (showing a thesis to be false) and ‘unmasking’ (undermining a thesis). Under ‘refuting’, we consider the methodological validation processes on their own terms, identifying contradictory claims, weak findings and inconsistent application of methodological standards. Under ‘unmasking’, we critically analyse validation as a concept in itself. Here we identify two fundamental problems: symptom learning and feedback effects; and circularity and assumptions of independence and objectivity. Our analysis also highlights the extra-theoretical functions and effects of the tools. Both on their own terms and when subjected to more searching analysis, then, the validity claims the tools make fail to hold up to scrutiny. In concluding, we consider some of the effects of the processes we identify. Not only do these tools make certainty where there is none, we contend, they actively participate in the creation of social objects and social groups, and in shaping affected individuals and their opportunities. In unpacking in detail the legitimacy of the tools, our aim is to open up for further scrutiny the processes by which they go about making (rather than merely reflecting) the disease of addiction.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 2009
Background: Public drug markets and injecting impose significant burden on individuals and the c... more Background: Public drug markets and injecting impose significant burden on individuals and
the community. This study aimed to document public injecting and amenity in North
Richmond, an inner-city suburb of Melbourne, Australia.
Methods: A rapid assessment methodology was employed. Data comprised: secondary data on
drug use indicators, structured observations and interviews with key stakeholders. Primary data
were collected from May to October 2012. Quantitative data are summarised using descriptive
statistics. Basic content analysis was performed on interview transcripts.
Results: An average of 1843 needle–syringes (NS) were collected per month from syringe disposal
bins and street-sweeps in the period January–December 2012. Discarded NS and other
injecting paraphernalia were observed in a variety of locations. Stakeholder interviews
indicated substantial concerns over the presence of NS and witnessing injecting and overdose.
Discussion: Public injecting is widespread, frequent, and highly visible in North Richmond and
has a substantial negative effect on public amenity. The research identified two main priorities:
(1) enhance access to harm reduction services and materials; and (2) improve public amenity.
Among other responses, the study findings support the introduction of a supervised injecting
facility (SIF) as a viable component of a comprehensive harm reduction response to illicit drug
use in this area.
PhD Thesis. Curtin University. , 2009
Despite substantial government, media and public attention and concern over public injecting in N... more Despite substantial government, media and public attention and concern over public injecting in North Richmond, there has been no recent and comprehensive analysis of the impact of injecting drug use in the area.
International Journal of Drug Policy, Special Focus Issue: Articulating Science and Technology Studies for Drug Policy Research. 24 (3): 203-211., 2013
Popular Anthropology Magazine, 2011
Fraser, S. & Moore, D. (eds). The Drug Effect: Health, Crime and Society, 2011
heroin exchanges between marketplace participants, I show that drug markets are animated by the b... more heroin exchanges between marketplace participants, I show that drug markets are animated by the behaviour of market actors, with this behaviour constituted through social relations, power differentials and cultural understandings. Linking the cigarette exchanges between myself and my informants with the heroin exchanges between drug marketplace participants locates the latter exchanges in more generalised processes of social exchange and situates drug market behaviour within wider social and cultural practices.
International Journal of Drug Policy, Jan 1, 2010
The dominant Australian approaches to understanding illicit drug marketplaces are surveillance an... more The dominant Australian approaches to understanding illicit drug marketplaces are surveillance and criminological research. These approaches rely on the neoclassical economic model of the market which focuses primarily on supply and demand. In this paper, we draw on anthropological and sociological research to develop an alternative framework for understanding Australian illicit drug marketplaces that emphasises their constituent processes. Methods: The paper draws on two years of ethnographic research among heroin user/sellers of Vietnamese ethnicity in an Australian heroin marketplace. Results: Trade and barter were key modes of exchange in this marketplace. We identified active negotiation and bargaining over price on the basis of social relationships, with dealers and customers actively working to develop and maintain such ties. Dealers set price collectively and this was shaped by moral and cultural elements such as notions of a 'fair' price. Social processes and relations as well as shared cultural expectations helped to generate trust and maintain order in the marketplace. Conclusion: Our ethnographic research suggests that the dominant Australian approaches to the study of illicit drug markets, with their reliance on the elementary neoclassical economic market model, ignore the social processes and social relations through which such sites are made and remade. Nor do they adequately capture the complex character of the subjects who act within these sites. If we are to expand our 1 POSTPRINT. SOURCE: Dwyer, R. & Moore, D. (2010). Beyond neoclassical economics: Social process, agency and the maintenance of order in an Australian illicit drug marketplace. The International Journal of Drug Policy. 21 (5): 390-398.
British Journal of Criminology, Jan 1, 2010
The dominant Australian approaches to understanding illicit drug marketplaces are surveillance an... more The dominant Australian approaches to understanding illicit drug marketplaces are surveillance and criminological research. These approaches rely on the neoclassical economic model of the market which focuses primarily on supply and demand. In this paper, we draw on anthropological and sociological research to develop an alternative framework for understanding Australian illicit drug marketplaces that emphasises their constituent processes. Methods: The paper draws on two years of ethnographic research among heroin user/sellers of Vietnamese ethnicity in an Australian heroin marketplace. Results: Trade and barter were key modes of exchange in this marketplace. We identified active negotiation and bargaining over price on the basis of social relationships, with dealers and customers actively working to develop and maintain such ties. Dealers set price collectively and this was shaped by moral and cultural elements such as notions of a 'fair' price. Social processes and relations as well as shared cultural expectations helped to generate trust and maintain order in the marketplace. Conclusion: Our ethnographic research suggests that the dominant Australian approaches to the study of illicit drug markets, with their reliance on the elementary neoclassical economic market model, ignore the social processes and social relations through which such sites are made and remade. Nor do they adequately capture the complex character of the subjects who act within these sites. If we are to expand our 1 POSTPRINT. SOURCE: Dwyer, R. & Moore, D. (2010). Beyond neoclassical economics: Social process, agency and the maintenance of order in an Australian illicit drug marketplace. The International Journal of Drug Policy. 21 (5): 390-398.
Addiction Research & …, Jan 1, 2011
... Robyn Dwyer 1 , Suzanne Fraser 2 * , Carla Treloar 1 1 National Centre in HIV Social Research... more ... Robyn Dwyer 1 , Suzanne Fraser 2 * , Carla Treloar 1 1 National Centre in HIV Social Research, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. 2 Centre for Women's Studies and Gender Research, School ...
In Allsop, S. & Lee, N (eds.), Perspectives on Amphetamine Type Stimulants, I.P. Communications., 2012
International Journal of Drug Policy, Jan 1, 2008
Background: Pleasure and its pursuit provide the key explanatory frame in this ethnographic analy... more Background: Pleasure and its pursuit provide the key explanatory frame in this ethnographic analysis of temazepam injection among a set of drug injectors who enthusiastically embrace high-risk practices. The foregrounding of pleasure challenges key assumptions of harm reduction: namely, the 'rational' subject and the privileging of health as a universal good. In this paper I problematise the concepts of pleasure and conventional understandings of rationality. Interrogating these concepts through the actions and accounts of temazepam injectors, I argue that the model of the subject implicit in harm reduction does not sufficiently account for their everyday social practices. Methods: The paper draws on ethnographic research among heroin user/sellers of Vietnamese ethnicity in a local Australian heroin marketplace.
BMj, Jan 1, 1998
To estimate the incidence of HIV and hepatitis C virus and risk factors for seroconversion among ... more To estimate the incidence of HIV and hepatitis C virus and risk factors for seroconversion among a cohort of injecting drug users. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: Primary healthcare facility in central Sydney.
AIDS Education and …, Jan 1, 1994
Although there is growing evidence of differences between women and men who inject drugs (IDUs) i... more Although there is growing evidence of differences between women and men who inject drugs (IDUs) in terms of level of risk for HIV infection, very little research has been conducted specifically addressing the risk practices of women IDUs. This study formed part of a national study of HIV infection risks in IDUs and the purpose of the present analysis was an exploration of gender differences in HIV risk practices, focusing on the HIV risk practices of IDU women. 1,245 IDUs from the inner city area of Sydney took part in this study. Of these, 908 were men and 331 were women. Notable results were that female respondents were more likely to report sharing needles, they injected heroin more times in a typical using month and were more likely to have shared with someone they later found out was HIV seropositive. Female respondents also reported more sexual partners than men, were more likely to engage in prostitution, and were more likely to have sexual partners who were themselves IDUs. The results provide support for the proposition that women who inject drugs may be at greater risk of HIV infection through both their drug taking and their sexual practices. Further research is needed to explore the reasons underlying the risk practices of women who inject drugs and an understanding of these factors needs to be incorporated into HIV risk-reduction and drug harm-reduction policies and programs.
Addiction, Jan 1, 2001
Introduction Previous studies have explored the conditions surrounding research participation for... more Introduction Previous studies have explored the conditions surrounding research participation for respon-dent groups as divergent as clinical trial sub-jects,1 university students2 and children.3 The main focus of this literature has been upon theoretical dimensions of ...