Theorizing and Researching ‘Risk’: Notes on the Social Relations of Risk in Heroin Users’ Lifestyles

There is a four letter word that has gained enormous popularity in the AIDS era. Not only does it punctuate almost every conference paper and journal publication on the subject of HIV and AIDS, it litters the talk of interventionists, policy makers and researchers. If ever there was a ‘keyword’ that can be considered core to the study of the social aspects of AIDS, it is this word.1 Look no further than the cover of this book or the title of this chapter.