Stigmatized Professions and Ambiguous Subjects: Methodological Reflections from Sanitation Workers and Opioid Consumption in Sierra Leone

Abstract

This paper explores ethical dilemmas in relation to practices of alcohol and drug consumption in the workplace by manual pit emptiers in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Based on observations and interviews with workers, we come to understand the consumption of painkillers and gin as a mechanism to alleviate stigma, rather than an issue of addiction. Indeed, the consumption of psychoactive substances before manual pit emptying appears as a performance to create a symbolic distance between the worker entering half-naked in a tank filled with faecal sludge and the social being, who would never do so in a ‘normal state of mind’. This analysis calls both for a deconstruction of the policies and rules that shape the sanitation sector as shameful and ‘inhuman’ and for proposals to ameliorate those conditions. Furthermore, we explore our positions as researchers on why revealing such practices can make sense in action-oriented research but also must be thought through ethically. Beyond the guidance of institutional ethics boards, the question of short- and long-term engagements with research subjects is central in shaping what ought or ought not to be investigated. We thus contribute to the discussions on how to support better science and practices with and for already stigmatized populations.