Smokefree : a social, moral and political atmosphere / Simone Dennis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dennis, Simone, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Smoking.

Smoking--Social aspects.

Physical Description:

x, 198 p : illustrations (black and white) ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Summary:

Although tobacco is a legal substance, many governments around the world have introduced legislation to restrict smoking and access to tobacco products. Smokefree critically examines these changes, from the increasing numbers of places being designated as 'smokefree' to changes in cigarette packaging and the portrayal of smoking in popular culture. Unlike existing texts, this book neither advances a public health agenda nor condemns the erosion of individual rights. Instead, Simone Dennis takes a classical anthropological approach to present the first agenda-free, full-length study of smoking. Observing and analysing smoking practices and environments, she investigates how the social, moral, political and legal atmosphere of 'smokefree' came into being and examines the ideas about smoke, air, the senses, space and time which underlie it. Looking at the impact on public space and individuals, she reveals broader findings about the relationship between the state, agents and what is seen to constitute 'the public'. Enriched with ethnographic vignettes from the author's ten years of fieldwork in Australia, Smokefree is a challenging, important book which demands to be read and discussed by anyone with an interest in anthropology, sociology, political science, human geography and public health. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part 1 The lay of the smokefree land 27

1 The difference between tobacco and tomatoes 29

Introduction 29

On 'atmospheres' 31

Some thoughts on an uninsurable monkey 33

Public health interventions and the construction of the smoker 36

The Benson and Hedges World Series Cricket, 1988 39

Smokefree places 42

The nuances of public place legislation 43

Legislating the air 47

2 Oppositionary pairings and ruinous smoke 48

Introduction 48

Oppositionary pair: Right and wrong 48

Oppositionary pair: Public health and tobacco companies 50

Oppositionary pair: A long life or an untimely death 53

Oppositionary pair: The time of smoking and the time free of smoking 60

Oppositionary pair: Two spatial states 67

3 Reimagining the smoker 70

Introduction 70

The smoker, doubly constructed 72

Public health's rational agent 78

Anthropological reformulation of the smoker? 82

Michelle the rational smoker 86

Michelle, reanalysed 88

Putting things that are meant to be held apart, together: The internal inconsistency of smoking 90

Come off the veranda 93

Part 2 First, second, third and fourth hand smoke 95

4 Breathing in smoke(free), firsthand 97

Introduction 97

The theoretical backgroundedness of the air itself 99

Air as agent 101

Explicating the (firsthand) air for the ignorant agent 104

Take a big breath in 109

5 Miasmatic exhalation: Breathing out (secondhand) 114

Introduction 114

Explicating the secondhand air 115

The nose knows danger lie Jennifer, defender of the air 120

Public air 122

An illness-inducing stench: Cancer is catching 124

There is difference in the air 127

Colonial anthropology: Eradicating smoke and mosquitoes 128

Protecting the infinite and pure air 130

6 Abject thirdhand smoke 133

Introduction 133

Thirdhand smoke 135

'Mobile tobacco contamination packages' 137

Smell and the thirdhand trickster 138

Touch: How to deal with witches in the family 144

The air has a history 146

The second law of thermodynamics 148

7 Fourthhand smoke: Going to Flavor Country 151

Introduction 151

Explicating the air in cigarette advertising 152

Come on, come to Flavor Country 152

Small t taste 155

Capital T taste 156

Olive Brown is Not classy 157

All flights to Flavor Country have been grounded 160

The bitter taste of a gangrenous foot 161

Smoking to remember the air 163

Come breathe on me, honey 164

The rational agent and the travel agent 166.

ISBN:

9781472569202

1472569202

OCLC:

934038870