Collection

Chemical Youth

placeholder avatar Anita Hardon Author

The everyday lives of contemporary youth are awash with chemicals to boost pleasure, moods, sexual performance, appearance and health. What do pills, drinks, sprays, powders and lotions do for youth? What effects are they seeking? How can we understand the ways chemicals affect young bodies and minds? Instead of focusing on illegal drug use with the purpose of controlling it, we study the pervasive use of chemicals in everyday life – ethnographically, from the perspective of youth themselves.

We draw on medical anthropology and studies of science, technology and contemporary youth culture to research the lived effects of chemicals. By ‘lived effects’, we mean the combination of chemicals’ pharmaceutical properties, beliefs and expectations surrounding their use, and users’ experimentation with various techniques. Our ethnographic fieldwork, based on participant observation and long-term immersion in the field, takes place in the Netherlands, France, Indonesia and the Philippines. 

Published articles that are the result of fieldwork in Amsterdam, are published in this collection. For our other results, visit our website https://www.chemicalyouth.org

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