An Invitation to Change? An Ethnographic Study of a Residential Therapeutic Community for Substance Use

Abstract

Drawing upon the findings of a 31 month ethnographic study this thesis provides a snap-shot of the intricate workings that take place in a residential Therapeutic Community (TC) in the North West of England for individuals with a history of substance use. The thesis identifies and addresses the omission of process based research in the existing literature on TC’s for substance use and pays particular attention to how such unique settings provide an alternative way to work alongside those mainstream society deems to be deviant, problematic, worrying, threatening, troublesome, or undesirable in some way or another. The longitudinal dimension of the research allows the study to capture the voices of residents and practitioners to inform a more complete appreciation of the interpretation and implementation of the principles of the TC in practice.The study offers an unprecedented insight into the innovative design, delivery and intricate workings that takes place in a residential TC. Conducted at a time of great change and uncertainty in the theory and practice of drug policy and service provision – as the implications of Payment by Results (PbR) in the sector take hold - the study captures the tensions at work in realising in practice the theoretical ambitions of the TC and the very real challenges of reconciling increasingly commercial/business orientated decisions within public health models of thinking. In this way the study has the capacity to contribute to ongoing debates about processes associated with an individual’s journeys in and out of criminal careers in the desistance literature; and to broader criminal justice policy debates about the increasing marketization of the management and supervision of lawbreakers whose offending behaviour is heavily influenced by substance use.