Located between three powerful phenomena, public health, the law and social stigma, methadone maintenance treatment attracts loyal advocates, vociferous critics and innumerable engaged onlookers. This book aims to examine the controversial approach to addiction, providing in the process a unique approach to literature on illicit drugs

What is 'addiction'? What does it say about us, our social arrangements and our political preoccupations? Where is it going as an idea and what is at stake in its ongoing production? Drawing on ethnographic research, interviews and media and policy texts, this book traces the remaking of addiction in contemporary Western societies.

Women's magazines teem with its promises and horror stories; feminists ardently debate its status as harmful or heroic; surgeons and regulators compete to define which procedures can be offered and how. Through its representation, cosmetic surgery impacts on us all, not just those who go 'under the knife'. This book investigates the ways in which cosmetic surgery is shaping gender, and in the process, it questions contemporary cultural studies assumptions about how we read the media.

What role does 'vanity' play in the lives of 21st century subjects? Exploring a range of fields including public health, information technology, media studies and feminist approaches to the body and beauty, this book offers a broad analysis of how 'vanity' shapes contemporary Western societies and its understandings of selfhood.