Alternative states?
Short description
En jämförande studie om de svenska och de brittiska kopplingarna till den "andra vågens tobaksskademinskning"
The Swedish and British Affiliations with Second Wave Tobacco Harm Reduction Compared and Contrasted
After the generally-acknowledged failure of a first wave of tobacco harm reduction (THR) focussing on the development of ’safer’ cigarettes, tobacco policy wordwide today tends to prioritize smoking cessation and reduced initiation of tobacco use as its two most important objectives. However, a second wave of THR can also be seen gaining momentum. This focusses on creatively destroying the cigarette as a nicotine drug delivery system. Divorced from cigarette smoking, second wave THR presents nicotine addiction in society as a risk amenable to regulation and management, not an outright hazard in need of eradication.
This project aims to compare and contrast the differing relationship of Sweden and Britain to the emergence of second wave THR. Both countries are seen as closely involved in the rise of second wave THR, but in very different ways. In Sweden, second wave THR will be approached as coinciding firstly with strategies of technological innovation in the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries, while in Britain it will be studied as more closely-resembling a science-based policy reform movement. Theoretical and methodological inspired by earlier comparative research looking at contrasting policy alliances in relation to licit and illicit drugs alike, this project is designed to both broaden the purview of, and bring greater reflexivity into, the scientific and political deliberations of tobacco policy communities in Sweden, Britain and beyond.