‘No more of this macho bullshit’: drug treatment, place and the reworking of masculinity

Health geography has largely failed to engage with the topic of masculinity. This absence is surprising for several reasons, not least because health geography has close ties to social geography, where a burgeoning scholarship on masculinity has developed in recent years. In this paper, we contribute to what Thien and Del Casino ( ) envision as a more robust health geography for men. We do so through a detailed analysis of men's experiences within one form of health care setting, drug treatment programmes, drawing on qualitative data from participant observation and interviews at multiple treatment sites. Particular attention is given to understanding the ways in which the delivery of health care is dependent upon treatment programmes’ ability to problematise masculinities associated with the heavy consumption of drugs and alcohol, while concurrently showing men how to practise an alternative model of healthy masculinity. These objectives are accomplished through the structured domesticity of treatment programmes and through intensive relational work aimed at reworking the masculine self.