Home Page: Understanding Philadelphia's Opioid Crisis: A Structural Approach

This​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌ project looks at the opioid crisis in Kensington, Philadelphia, focusing on theories of structural violence, biopower, and social suffering. The blog here reframes the problem of opioid addiction which is commonly seen as an individual or medical failure, as a consequence of redlining, deindustrialization, racialized policing, and political neglect that have shaped the neighborhood for the last several decades. This series of posts employs the methods of medical anthropology, social epidemiology, and medical sociology to unpack the different aspects of the crisis and to show how inequality determines susceptibility, ways of survival, and the distribution of ​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌harm.