The Anti-Prohibitionist Movement: resistance discourses
Name: FABIOLA XAVIER LEAL
Publication date: 24/03/2017
Advisor:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| MARIA LUCIA TEIXEIRA GARCIA | Advisor * |
Examining board:
| Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| ANA TARGINA RODRIGUES FERRAZ | Internal Examiner * |
| MARIA LUCIA TEIXEIRA GARCIA | Advisor * |
Summary: This study aims at analyzing the resistance discourses present in debates about the Drug Policy in Brazil in order to unveil the meaning they convey in the present time and to which interests they bonded under the Gramscian categories. As specific objectives: analyze the drug policy based on the process of constructing and legitimizing the anti-prohibitionist paradigm; understand how the anti-prohibitionist paradigm is conformed in the processes of dispute, showing whether there is prevalence of supremacy methods or forms of hegemony; analyze the processes employed by civil society so as to identify in which historical moment the anti-prohibitionist movement is placed; list the main groups linked to the anti-prohibitionist struggle, identifying the main fight flags in their discourses; point out whether or not there is agreement in these discourses so that they are qualified in the anti-prohibitionist field; analyze the agenda for drug legalization from the anti-prohibitionist perspective; contribute to academia and society interested in the theme as critical reflection about the anti-prohibitionist paradigm and the movement deriving from it. As theoretical-methodological approach, we employed the critical dialectical materialist method based on the Gramscian theoretical framework. The data were obtained from a semi-structured interview with 7 individuals who were active in the resistance movement in the anti-prohibitionist field. The analysis was based on the concept in which a discourse is always related to its conditions of social-historical production WHERE one can see the set of possible discourses. As a conclusion, we point out that the anti-prohibitionist paradigm in Brazil has been managed by movements that stand in the field of resistance against the drug policy in force all over the world. Among the fight flags, the legalization and regulation of drugs from the anti-prohibitionist perspective are brought by the subjects from different perspectives. In this regard, we need to demystify the concepts and meanings of legalization presented. The anti-prohibitionist movement in Brazil is configured as resistance against the prohibition model in force, but it is not a counter-hegemonic movement from the Gramscian perspective. We can also highlight a few suggestions of strategies so that the movement can be presented from the perspective of change in reality, guided by the philosophy of praxis.
