An essay by Oliver Kershaw & Amelia Howard
There is a disconnect between the tobacco research community and the vaping user-community. Both groups have almost totally divergent knowledge-base of the technology; the former based on its existing tobacco research agenda, the latter based on practical experience with the technology and through peer-learning and marketing.
We contend that vape is not an extension of the medical science paradigm or the tobacco control paradigm and, therefore, that the techniques used to (simultaneously) understand and tackle tobacco usage are wholly inappropriate in understanding vape. We are not saying that these established paradigms are illegitimate or irrelevant. But they do not work well when it comes to understanding user-driven technology, which, importantly, is also not an extension of the tobacco industry.
This has led to a continued and intractable divergence between the practice community that makes and uses the products and the communities publishing research. It is still true to say, as it has been true to say since the technology appeared that the productive, and perhaps the only way, to understand vape is as a consumer.
There is a disconnect between the tobacco research community and the vaping user-community. Both groups have almost totally divergent knowledge-base of the technology; the former based on its existing tobacco research agenda, the latter based on practical experience with the technology and through peer-learning and marketing.
We contend that vape is not an extension of the medical science paradigm or the tobacco control paradigm and, therefore, that the techniques used to (simultaneously) understand and tackle tobacco usage are wholly inappropriate in understanding vape. We are not saying that these established paradigms are illegitimate or irrelevant. But they do not work well when it comes to understanding user-driven technology, which, importantly, is also not an extension of the tobacco industry.
This has led to a continued and intractable divergence between the practice community that makes and uses the products and the communities publishing research. It is still true to say, as it has been true to say since the technology appeared that the productive, and perhaps the only way, to understand vape is as a consumer.
on Fri, 06/09/2017 - 00:11 admin
