Controlled Smoking: Implications for Research on Tobacco use

Abstract

Tobacco might be the most widespread “Genussmittel” (a good that is defined in terms of its users' intentions to enjoy, relish its taste, effects, etc.; “Genuss”) in the world. But even though the use of tobacco is primarily motivated by an expectation of “Genuss,” within recent years the main public focus has turned to the problematic aspects of smoking. In the years after World War II concerns were directed toward the harms of tobacco. Then – starting in the 1980s – the discourse on harm changed into a discourse on (nicotine) addiction. This article outlines a prospective research project concerned with the way the addiction discourse continuously reproduces current patterns of “addicted smoking” in the form of a self-fulfilling prophecy.