Understanding culture, stigma and drug as a lifestyle in the life of people living in the streets

Abstract

This research aimed to analyse how homeless people experience drug use and the intertwining between it and their cultural envi-ronment and life style. An etnographic study has been conducted which identified the macrosocial structures through the National Movement of the Homeless (Movimento Nacional da Popu-lação de Rua) monitoring and the microsocial ones by means of its interlocutors’ individual tra-jectories. Data were collected upon participant observation, registered in a research field journal and in semi-structured interviews. The analysis was carried out by data generation synthesis over the whole working process. Results reveal a street culture in which drug builds a collective life style that sets relationships and identities which withstand stigmas. Life stories unveil social suffering and exclusion besides non-adapta-tion to society conventional and formal aspects. Therefore, homeless people have their own social organisation that helps them to endure the diffi-culties in being accepted by society as well as the inadequacy of the social services that should as-sist them. Drug is part of this culture as a way of living and it needs to be understood and worked with by health professionals through a conscious and open approach.