Introduction
“Truly meaningful prevention means building a just society. It means reducing poverty, the stresses of injustice, the loneliness in a society based on consumerism,” says George Albee (2010: 99). This is a rather radical notion of prevention. The reality looks quite otherwise, alas. In general, prevention is seen as something benign and innocent, only wanting something good to happen or develop. But from a critical perspective prevention must also be seen as a regulating and disciplining strategy that ensures that the subjects monitor themselves and others according to established and dominant categories.
Definition
“Prevention” means the forestalling of something unwanted: a defined problem should not even occur. In order to avoid the realization of the unwanted event (e.g., addiction, accidents, diseases, calamities, etc.), certain measures have to be taken. These measures can target people or structures (e.g., urban planning, architecture, social services, employment)....
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References
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Sanin, D. (2014). Drug Prevention. In: Teo, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_500
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_500
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