ABSTRACT
In the early 2000s injecting drugs researchers debated the use of the category of needle fixation as a relevant phenomenon for understanding heroin addiction. Tracing the origins of the debate, this chapter considers the impact conceptual analyses of the syringe have had in the social sciences. Much of the debate on needle fixation, conducted in journal Addiction Research & Theory, centred on the behaviour of repetitive needle injection from the drug users' perspective. Drawing on the theoretical work of Pierre Bourdieu, Fitzgerald calls for greater understanding of the 'role of social factors such as class, gender, and ethnicity' in shaping the significance of injecting. The effects of Bourdieu's social theory for understandings of the injecting rush are explored in greater detail in Philippe Bourgois' ethnographic study of homeless heroin addicts in US inner city. In Bourgois' ethnography of injecting drug use, the rush is transformed from a habit, discourse and socially mediated experience to a racialised social practice.
