The Communitarian Preventive Paradox: Preventing Substance Misuse without the Substance

Abstract

This article analyses an attempt to prevent social problems through community action in support of self-responsibility. To support their members, communities need shared ideals of a good life, but, in contemporary pluralistic societies, consensus on such ideals is difficult to attain. Our case study is a community-orientated drug and alcohol prevention programme in Helsinki, Finland. It operates within the public sector while attempting to circumvent the disadvantages associated with that. Interviews with the programme's workers illustrate the combination of rationalistic individualism with romantic communitarianism as an alternative to governmental paternalism. Dilemmas emerge from trying to combine `statism', voluntary work, community networks and citizens' self-responsibility in an environment of mixed messages concerning drug use and its prevention. This liberal communitarian approach results in the communitarian preventive paradox: difficulties in defining concrete problems and specific targets for preventive action while trying to mobilize community support.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alavaikko, M. (2000) `Alcohol Policy and the New Public Management', pp. 135-155 in P. Sulkunen, C. Sutton, C. Tigerstedt and K. Warpenius (eds) Broken Spirits: Power and Ideas in Nordic Alcohol Control. Helsinki: NAD .

Alcohol Programme for the 2000s: Collaboration and Responsibility (2001[1997]) Working Group Memorandum. Helsinki: Ministry of Social Affairs and Health .

Andersen, J. (2000) `Municipalities between the State and the People', pp. 157-184 in P. Sulkunen, C. Sutton, C. Tigerstedt and K. Warpenius (eds) Broken Spirits: Power and Ideas in Nordic Alcohol Control. Helsinki: NAD .

Badwahr, N. (1996) `Moral Agency, Commitment and Impartiality', pp. 1-26 in E. F. Paul, F. D. Miller and J. Paul (eds) The Communitarian Challenge to Liberalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .

Bellah, R. N., Tipton, S., Sullivan, W. and Swidler, A. (1985) Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. Berkeley: University of California Press .

Clarke, J., Gewirtz, S. and McLaughlin, E. (eds) (2000) `Reinventing the Welfare State', pp. 1-26 in New Managerialism, New Welfare? London: Open University Press/Sage .

Conway, D. (1996) `Capitalism and Community', pp. 137-163 in E. F. Paul, F. D. Miller and J. Paul (eds) The Communitarian Challenge to Liberalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .

Dean, M. (1999) Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society. London: Sage .

Dean, M. (2002) `Liberal Government and Authoritarianism' , Economy and Society 31(1): 37-61 .

10.

Drug Strategy of the City of Helsinki (2000[1997]) Revised Version of the Strategy of 1997. Helsinki: City of Helsinki .

11.

Etzioni, A. (1993) The Spirit of Community: Rights, Responsibilities, and the Communitarian Agenda. New York: Crown .

12.

Giddens, A. (1998) The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy. Cambridge: Polity Press .

13.

Haatanen, K. (2000) Yhteisöllisyyden paradoksit (The Paradoxes of Communitarianism). Department of Social Policy, University of Helsinki .

14.

Hibbell, B., Andersson, B., Ahlstrom, S., Balakireva, O., Bjarnson, T., Kokkevi, A. and Morgan, M. (2000) The HYPERLINK1999 ESPAD Report: Alcohol and other Drug Use among Students in 30 European Countries. Stockholm: Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and other Drugs (CAN)/Pompidou Group of the Council of Europe .

15.

Karlsson, T. (2001) An Evaluation of the National Alcohol Prevention Program. Helsinki: Development Centre for Welfare and Health .

16.

Kreitman, N. (1986) `Alcohol Consumption and the Preventive Paradox' , British Journal of Addiction 81(3): 353-363 .

17.

Lund, B. (1999) ` “Ask Not what Your Community Can Do for You”: Obligations, New Labour and Welfare Reform' , Critical Social Policy 19(4): 447-462 .

18.

Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (2000) Committee for Preventing Drug Use among Young People, Committee Report. Helsinki: Ministry of Social Affairs and Health .

19.

Newman, J. (2000) `Beyond the New Public Management? Modernizing Public Services', pp. 45-61 in J. Clarke, S. Gewirtz and E. McLaughlin (eds) New Managerialism, New Welfare? London: Open University Press/Sage .

20.

Rawls, J. (1988[1972]) A Theory of Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press .

21.

Sulkunen, P. and Simpura, J. (1997) `Alcohol Policy, the State and the Local Community', pp. 23-40 in M. Holmila (ed.) Community Prevention of Alcohol Problems. London: Macmillan .

22.

Sulkunen, P. and Warpenius, K. (2000) `Reforming the Self and the other: The Temperance Movement and the Duality of Modern Subjectivity' , Critical Public Health 10(4): 423-438 .

23.

Sulkunen, P., Sutton, C., Tigerstedt, C. and Warpenius, K. (eds) (2000) Broken Spirits: Power and Ideas in Nordic Alcohol Control. Helsinki: NAD .

24.

Taylor, C. (1989) Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press .

25.

Walzer, M. (1995) `The Communitarian Critique of Liberalism', pp. 52-70 in A. Etzioni (ed.) New Communitarian Thinking: Persons, Virtues, Institutions, and Communities. Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia .

26.

Wolfe, A. (1995) `Human Nature and the Quest for Community', pp. 126-140 in A. Etzioni (ed.) New Communitarian Thinking: Persons, Virtues, Institutions, and Communities. Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia .