I am currently conducting some research on ecstasy as part of my degree
in social psychology at the London School of Economics.
The exact nature of my project is to do with societies representations of
drug users, and the nature of peoples identities who percieve themselves
as members of the 'Dance Culture. A focus of my research Is the media's
treatment of the recent death of Leah Betts, and the way in which this served
not to inform young people of the dangers of ecstasy use, but more to maintain
the dominant ideals of society. I will be conducting a thorough analysis
of newspaper reports following the tragic incident, in addition to conducting
a number of interviews with people who identify with the Culture itself.
The interviews will be useful at two level; firstly, I hope to gain an insight
into the groups beliefs and values, as well as perform a discourse analysis
of the results, which will hope to identify the way the individuals use
language as markers of their social identity.
I myself am a third year undergraduate, and although I have never personally
taken ecstasy, I regularly enjoy clubbing and festivals etc, and a number
of my friends enjoy the benefits of the drug. When given the opportunity
to conduct a piece of social research, I leapt at the chance to do something
interesting, highly topical, and in an area which has been much neglected
by social theorists.
Although the project will be relatively short: some 10-15,000 words in length,
I'm sure you will find some of the material interesting, and will be delighted
to give you a copy of the final piece, due for completion sometime after
Easter this year.
From Dan Worrell D.J.Worrell@lse.ac.uk