Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains about the history of Harm Reduction. It examines the challenges Harm Reduction presents to social science. The book addresses changes in scientific knowledge production of injecting drug use since the mid-1980s. It generates a methodology and epistemology of the syringe-in-use. The book considers the impact of social epistemologies for understanding the syringe. It investigates what happens when humans connect morality and technology in theoretical and empirical evaluations of public policy. The book examines the effectiveness of Needle Exchange programs as a spatial intervention. It also evaluates the social category of gender in empirical analyses of drug injecting. Harm Reduction has been at the centre of national and international debates on health and human rights. Since the mid-1980s it has been both controversial and influential in the treatment of injecting drug users.