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The discourse of drug use in Egypt: an interdisciplinary exploratory study

This thesis sets out to better understand how Egyptian society constructs and labels the ‘deviant’ behavior of drug use. However, it is not about drugs per se, it is about scrutinizing the complex process through which Egyptian society encounters, experiences, and regulates behavior. Through an inte...

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Main Author: Gutierrez, Alejandro
Format: Thesis
Published: AUC Knowledge Fountain 2015
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access_status_str Open Access
author Gutierrez, Alejandro
author_browse Gutierrez, Alejandro
author_facet Gutierrez, Alejandro
author_sort Gutierrez, Alejandro
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv The author retains all rights with regard to copyright. The author certifies that written permission from the owner(s) of third-party copyrighted matter included in the thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study has been obtained. The author further certifies that IRB approval has been obtained for this thesis, or that IRB approval is not necessary for this thesis. Insofar as this thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study is an educational record as defined in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 USC 1232g), the author has granted consent to disclosure of it to anyone who requests a copy.
description This thesis sets out to better understand how Egyptian society constructs and labels the ‘deviant’ behavior of drug use. However, it is not about drugs per se, it is about scrutinizing the complex process through which Egyptian society encounters, experiences, and regulates behavior. Through an interdisciplinary approach, it builds an alternative and critical understanding of a stigmatized group of individuals by describing how they shape or are shaped by the dynamic system in which they exist. Thus, it creates a conversation between the structures of power that regulate the moral economy of society on the one hand and individuals practicing a role with their substance use on the other. It explores the structural power that disciplinary mechanisms have over ‘deviant behavior’, while simultaneously illustrating that ‘deviant drug users’ are judged according to a variety of unique circumstances and spectrum of acceptability. While some are successfully stigmatized for violating norms, others are able to retain their autonomy and shape their own rules and value systems outside the judgment of mainstream society. So, by using drug use as a lens to examine society, this thesis analyzes the fluidity of power within society in this context and also the ambiguity of behavior within different times and spaces. Ultimately, this thesis shows that deviant behavior like drug use is essential to any society that designates boundaries and rules. For how do individuals know what roles, interactions, behavior, value systems, are legitimate if society doesn’t create a ‘deviant other’ whose transgressions teach right from wrong, lawful from unlawful, and the acceptable from the unacceptable.
format Thesis
id oai:fount.aucegypt.edu:etds-1117
institution American University in Cairo (Egypt)
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:35:39.635Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from AUC Knowledge Fountain — bepress
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
publishDateSort 2015
publisher AUC Knowledge Fountain
publisherStr AUC Knowledge Fountain
record_format dspace
source_str AUC Knowledge Fountain — bepress
spelling oai:fount.aucegypt.edu:etds-1117 The discourse of drug use in Egypt: an interdisciplinary exploratory study Gutierrez, Alejandro This thesis sets out to better understand how Egyptian society constructs and labels the ‘deviant’ behavior of drug use. However, it is not about drugs per se, it is about scrutinizing the complex process through which Egyptian society encounters, experiences, and regulates behavior. Through an interdisciplinary approach, it builds an alternative and critical understanding of a stigmatized group of individuals by describing how they shape or are shaped by the dynamic system in which they exist. Thus, it creates a conversation between the structures of power that regulate the moral economy of society on the one hand and individuals practicing a role with their substance use on the other. It explores the structural power that disciplinary mechanisms have over ‘deviant behavior’, while simultaneously illustrating that ‘deviant drug users’ are judged according to a variety of unique circumstances and spectrum of acceptability. While some are successfully stigmatized for violating norms, others are able to retain their autonomy and shape their own rules and value systems outside the judgment of mainstream society. So, by using drug use as a lens to examine society, this thesis analyzes the fluidity of power within society in this context and also the ambiguity of behavior within different times and spaces. Ultimately, this thesis shows that deviant behavior like drug use is essential to any society that designates boundaries and rules. For how do individuals know what roles, interactions, behavior, value systems, are legitimate if society doesn’t create a ‘deviant other’ whose transgressions teach right from wrong, lawful from unlawful, and the acceptable from the unacceptable. 2015-02-01T08:00:00Z thesis application/pdf https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/118 https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/1117/viewcontent/PDF_20OF_20THE_20FINAL_20VERSION.pdf The author retains all rights with regard to copyright. The author certifies that written permission from the owner(s) of third-party copyrighted matter included in the thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study has been obtained. The author further certifies that IRB approval has been obtained for this thesis, or that IRB approval is not necessary for this thesis. Insofar as this thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study is an educational record as defined in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 USC 1232g), the author has granted consent to disclosure of it to anyone who requests a copy. Theses and Dissertations AUC Knowledge Fountain Drug Use Behavior
spellingShingle Drug Use
Behavior
Gutierrez, Alejandro
The discourse of drug use in Egypt: an interdisciplinary exploratory study
title The discourse of drug use in Egypt: an interdisciplinary exploratory study
title_full The discourse of drug use in Egypt: an interdisciplinary exploratory study
title_fullStr The discourse of drug use in Egypt: an interdisciplinary exploratory study
title_full_unstemmed The discourse of drug use in Egypt: an interdisciplinary exploratory study
title_short The discourse of drug use in Egypt: an interdisciplinary exploratory study
title_sort discourse of drug use in egypt an interdisciplinary exploratory study
topic Drug Use
Behavior
url https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/118
https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/1117/viewcontent/PDF_20OF_20THE_20FINAL_20VERSION.pdf
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