Righteous Dopefiend

Michel Foucault coined this term to describe how the locus of state power shifted in the West from sovereignty, or a state system that enforces its power with violence, to biopower, which ostensibly promotes citizens’ health and well-being. Biopower’s mechanism of control is not fear of being killed or tortured by the state, but “an internalized self-disciplinary gaze that responsible individuals impose on their bodies and psyches as a moral responsibility” (19). Biopower “is primarily organized around monitoring and regulating large population groups through broad interventions” (20); the book sees biopower at work when interlocutors are recruited to be tested for HIV or Hepatitis C and then are informed only how to avoid contracting either, rather than how to manage the disease once they have it. Biopower is thus a key concept in the work’s exploration of Politically and Institutionally Structured Violence.

“Dopefiend” is a slang term (often derogatory) for someone who is addicted to dope, or illegal drugs—in Righteous Dopefiend, dope primarily refers to heroin and crack.

When California shifted from a mainly industrial economy to a technology economy, regions such as Silicon Valley experienced unprecedented economic growth. In the book, the dot-com boom explains the extreme wealth and gentrification of cities like San Francisco, resulting in high rates of homelessness when rent becomes too expensive for people experiencing poverty to afford. As this economic boom was happening, the state government severely cut funding to social services, amplifying disparities that were already reaching new heights.

The habitus is a concept developed by Pierre Bourdieu concerning “the way hidden forms of symbolic power maintain and legitimize hierarchy and oppression through everyday ‘practice’” (19); it encompasses preferences and social behavior. Righteous Dopefiend uses this concept to explore the daily habits of the Edgewater social network; it provides a critical perspective of what is considered natural.

This is slang for stealing. Interlocutors hit licks by stealing wood from construction sites and materials from immigrant workers, selling the items to buy crack and/or heroin.

Bourgois and Schonberg refer to the population of people experiencing homelessness and often drug addiction as lumpen—a term Karl Marx used to refer to a class that has no role in contemporary modes of production and represents a “vulnerable population that is produced at the interstices of transition modes of production” (19). The concept is central to the theory of lumpen abuse—the theoretical framework for the entire book.

Neoliberalism is a politico-economic model for capitalism that in the context of this book means “free markets protected by law enforcement and military intervention, for the benefit of corporate monopolies with minimal redistribution of income and social services for the poor” (349). Neoliberalism has played a significant role in the enormous and increasing wealth disparities in the US, cuts to public social services funding, and access to affordable housing in cities like San Francisco.

“Nodding” refers to the euphoric, relaxed state induced by heroin.

“Skin-popping” is a form of injection popular with white interlocutors, in which heroin is injected directly into fatty tissue once reachable veins are too scarred. It is a frequent cause of abscesses, or deep-tissue infections, which become life-threatening if left untreated.