How will e-cigarettes affect health inequalities? Applying Bourdieu to smoking and cessation

This paper uses the work of Bourdieu to theorise smoking and cessation through a class lens, showing that the struggle for distinction created the social gradient in smoking, with smoking stigma operating as a proxy for class stigma. This led to increased policy focus on the health of bystanders and children and later also to concerns about electronic cigarettes. Bourdieu ’s concept of habitus is deployed to argue that the e-cigarette helps middle-class smokers resolve smoking as a symptom of cleft habitus associated with social mobility or particular subcultures.

Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - January 27, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Frances Thirlway Tags: Research Paper Source Type: research