The Other(ed) World: Discourses Negotiating Prohibition, Identity, Trust and Motivation in a Darknet Drug Market Platform Community
(2026) SOAM21 20261School of Social Work
- Abstract
- Drug use is governed today by a global prohibition regime that medicalizes and criminalizes people who use drugs, producing marginalization, risk environments, and illicit markets. In parallel, digital platformization has enabled darknet cryptomarkets to reorganize drug distribution and create new social contexts in which drugs, markets, and users are discursively constructed. This thesis examines how actors on a Swedish‑language darknet cryptomarket present and understand themselves as drug users and market participants, how they construct drugs and markets, and how these constructions relate to prohibition and platform capitalism. Based on a netnographic corpus of forum posts and vendor pages from one market, analyzed with discursive... (More)
- Drug use is governed today by a global prohibition regime that medicalizes and criminalizes people who use drugs, producing marginalization, risk environments, and illicit markets. In parallel, digital platformization has enabled darknet cryptomarkets to reorganize drug distribution and create new social contexts in which drugs, markets, and users are discursively constructed. This thesis examines how actors on a Swedish‑language darknet cryptomarket present and understand themselves as drug users and market participants, how they construct drugs and markets, and how these constructions relate to prohibition and platform capitalism. Based on a netnographic corpus of forum posts and vendor pages from one market, analyzed with discursive psychology and interpretative repertoires, the study identifies buyer and vendor repertoires, subject positions, and prohibition‑effects repertoires that together show how identities, trust, and motivation are constructed under a criminalizing, platform‑mediated regime. Trust appears as a relational accomplishment, grounded in evaluations of vendor motivation, quality, and care as much as in technical or economic performance. Cryptomarket forums function as partial counterpublics where subordinated drug‑using identities can be articulated and defended, yet prohibitionist discourse and platform logics continue to shape interaction. The thesis argues that cryptomarkets are sites where prohibition and platform capitalism both constrain and enable drug market practices and identities, and where people who use drugs discursively imagine and enact “better” markets, with implications for debates on drug policy and social work practice. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9227462
- author
- Danielsson, Alexander LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SOAM21 20261
- year
- 2026
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- drug policy, drug use, drug markets, illicit digitasl drug markets, drug trade prohibition, platform capitalism, digital platforms, platformization, darknet, online communities, ecryptomarkets, counterpublics, stigmatization, trust, motivation, identity, discourse analysis, interpretative repertoires, orders of discourse ethnography, netnography social constructionism, social work, harm reduction
- language
- English
- id
- 9227462
- date added to LUP
- 2026-06-10 09:05:03
- date last changed
- 2026-06-10 09:05:03
@misc{9227462,
abstract = {{Drug use is governed today by a global prohibition regime that medicalizes and criminalizes people who use drugs, producing marginalization, risk environments, and illicit markets. In parallel, digital platformization has enabled darknet cryptomarkets to reorganize drug distribution and create new social contexts in which drugs, markets, and users are discursively constructed. This thesis examines how actors on a Swedish‑language darknet cryptomarket present and understand themselves as drug users and market participants, how they construct drugs and markets, and how these constructions relate to prohibition and platform capitalism. Based on a netnographic corpus of forum posts and vendor pages from one market, analyzed with discursive psychology and interpretative repertoires, the study identifies buyer and vendor repertoires, subject positions, and prohibition‑effects repertoires that together show how identities, trust, and motivation are constructed under a criminalizing, platform‑mediated regime. Trust appears as a relational accomplishment, grounded in evaluations of vendor motivation, quality, and care as much as in technical or economic performance. Cryptomarket forums function as partial counterpublics where subordinated drug‑using identities can be articulated and defended, yet prohibitionist discourse and platform logics continue to shape interaction. The thesis argues that cryptomarkets are sites where prohibition and platform capitalism both constrain and enable drug market practices and identities, and where people who use drugs discursively imagine and enact “better” markets, with implications for debates on drug policy and social work practice.}},
author = {{Danielsson, Alexander}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{The Other(ed) World: Discourses Negotiating Prohibition, Identity, Trust and Motivation in a Darknet Drug Market Platform Community}},
year = {{2026}},
}