The Communitarian Preventive Paradox: Preventing Substance Misuse without the Substance

Abstract

This article analyses an attempt to prevent social problems through community action in support of self-responsibility. To support their members, communities need shared ideals of a good life, but, in contemporary pluralistic societies, consensus on such ideals is difficult to attain. Our case study is a community-orientated drug and alcohol prevention programme in Helsinki, Finland. It operates within the public sector while attempting to circumvent the disadvantages associated with that. Interviews with the programme's workers illustrate the combination of rationalistic individualism with romantic communitarianism as an alternative to governmental paternalism. Dilemmas emerge from trying to combine `statism', voluntary work, community networks and citizens' self-responsibility in an environment of mixed messages concerning drug use and its prevention. This liberal communitarian approach results in the communitarian preventive paradox: difficulties in defining concrete problems and specific targets for preventive action while trying to mobilize community support.