This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Singer, M. Articles by Weeks, M. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Singer, M. Articles by Weeks, M. Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

"War Stories": AIDS Prevention and the Street Narratives of Drug Users

Hispanic Health Council in Hartford, Connecticut

Glenn Scott

Hispanic Health Council

Scott Wilson

Southwest and Northeast United States

Delia Easton

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Margaret Weeks

Institute for Community Research

The day-to-day discourse of illicit drug users is replete with stylized narratives of street experience. These "war stories," as they are popularly known, are shared among drug users as they hustle for money, purchase drugs, get high, and hang out in diverse street locations. Drug-user narratives, which describe complex adventures and grave suffering, are primary ethnographic sources of information about patterns of drug consumption and risk behaviors. Importantly, in the time of AIDS, street narratives provide a much-needed window on the generally hidden lives of socially marginalized street drug users. As part of an effort to put the analysis of drug-user war stories to use in HIV prevention, in this article the authors analyze a corpus of street narratives told to members of an HIV-prevention research team in Hartford, Connecticut.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				O. Taieb, A. Revah-Levy, M. R. Moro, and T. Baubet Is Ricoeur's Notion of Narrative Identity Useful in Understanding Recovery in Drug Addicts? Qual Health Res, July 1, 2008; 18(7): 990 - 1000. [Abstract] [PDF]

				M. J. Cheyney Homebirth as Systems-Challenging Praxis: Knowledge, Power, and Intimacy in the Birthplace Qual Health Res, February 1, 2008; 18(2): 254 - 267. [Abstract] [PDF]

				K. E. Mosack, M. Abbott, M. Singer, M. R. Weeks, and L. Rohena If I Didn't Have HIV, I'd Be Dead Now: Illness Narratives of Drug Users Living With HIV/AIDS Qual Health Res, May 1, 2005; 15(5): 586 - 605. [Abstract] [PDF]

				G. Armitage, A. Holder, and I. Hodgson Using ethnography (or qualitative methods) to investigate drug errors: A critique of a published study Journal of Research in Nursing, September 1, 2004; 9(5): 379 - 387. [Abstract] [PDF]

				N. VITELLONE The Syringe as a Prosthetic Body Society, September 1, 2003; 9(3): 37 - 52. [Abstract] [PDF]

				N. Miczo Beyond the "Fetishism of Words": Considerations on the Use of the Interview to Gather Chronic Illness Narratives Qual Health Res, April 1, 2003; 13(4): 469 - 490. [Abstract] [PDF]

				OTHER ARTICLES NOTED (Nov 01 to 18 Oct 02) Evid. Based Nurs., January 1, 2003; 6(1): e1 - 1. [Full Text] [PDF]