Karenza Moore

• PhD in Sociology (Surrey Uni); MA in Medical Sociology, BA (hons) in Sociology and French
• Lecturer at University of Salford

Executive Summary MDMA is well established as a popular psychoactive substance across much of the Western world. Hundreds of thousands of people break the law to access its effects, which include increased energy, euphoria, and enhanced sociability. The categorisation of MDMA as a Class A drug in the UK and Schedule 1 drug internationally – categor...

This chapter considers developments in the field of gender and drugs research. Reviewing feminists' pioneering work on gender and drug use from the 1980s onwards, it draws attention to Ettorre's more recent call to ‘re-vision’ the understandings of female drug use. In the context of over two decades of rave, dance and club drug research, which has...

Background/aims: To assess whether novel psychoactive substances (NPS) displace established club drugs, supplement them or act as drugs of initiation via a study of the relationship between mephedrone, ecstasy pills, cocaine and MDMA powder amongst club-goers considered to be 'early adopters' of psychostimulant/club drug trends. Methods: In situ...

This article focuses on “G” in the United Kingdom (UK), G being the collective term for gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and gammabutyrolactone (GBL). Drawing on empirical data and taking a critical drug studies perspective, we use G as a case study in how drug cultures move through phases whereby a diffuse and contested network of emergent practices, a...

Purpose In this fourth paper in a series on emergent drug trends in the UK (2006 ketamine, 2009 MDMA powder/crystal, 2010 mephedrone), the authors consider how the pharmacological landscape has changed since substituted cathinones (including mephedrone) were controlled in April 2010 and in particular assess the prevalence of mephedrone in the gener...

Aim: To assess the prevalence of use of established illegal psychoactive drugs and emergent psychoactive drugs, the so-called “legal highs”, amongst gay club-goers who are considered to be “early adopters” of drug trends. Design: Three in situ surveys were conducted in July 2010 with customers at two dance clubs (nightclubs) in an area known for it...

Women continue to leave the UK ICT sector in disproportionate numbers, yet little research has documented this phenomenon. In contrast, the majority of existing studies in this area concentrate on women who remain in the ICT workplace. The �Disappearing Women: Northwest ICT� project reported in this paper focused on women who left the UK ICT sector...

Significant changes in British recreational drug use were seen throughout 2009, with the emergence and rapid growth in the availability and use of substituted cathinones or ‘M-Cats’ (most notably mephedrone and methylone), a group of psychoactive drugs not currently controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (HM Government, 1971), with similar e...

Significant changes in British recreational drug use were seen throughout 2009, with the emergence and rapid growth in the availability and use of substituted cathinones or ‘M-Cats’ (most notably mephedrone and methylone), a group of psychoactive drugs not currently controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (HM Government, 1971), with similar e...

This chapter positions British trance clubbing as a form of emotional and alternative spiritual expression produced by youthful participants ‘committed’ to heterogeneous electronic dance music (EDM) club cultures (Moore 2004) within the context of the British night-time economy’s (NTE) ‘commercial exploitation of pleasure’ (Measham and Brain 2005,...

Significant changes in British recreational drug use were seen throughout 2009, with the emergence and rapid growth in the availability and use of substituted cathinones or ‘M-Cats’ (most notably mephedrone and methylone), a group of psychoactive drugs not currently controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (HM Government, 1971), with similar e...

Presented here are the first findings of self report surveys of prevalence of illicit drug use by customers in the night time economy of a large English city. Five random sample surveys conducted with dance club customers and three similar surveys with bar customers identified an association between illicit drug use, entertainment type and venue ty...

Whilst ketamine use in clubbing contexts has recently been the focus of British media attention, little quantitative or qualitative data is available on its use amongst those young people participating in Britain's contemporary post-rave electronic dance music (EDM) ‘scenes’ as clubbers. Drawing on data from in-depth semi-structured interviews cond...

Commonly known as ecstasy, MDMA has been central to the British acid house, rave and dance club scene over the last 20 years. Figures from the annual national British Crime Survey suggest that ecstasy use has declined since 2001. This apparent decline is considered here alongside the concurrent emergence of a ‘new’ form of ecstasy - MDMA powder or...

This article investigates stories of the future in relation to women in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector through the development of a theoretical and methodological stance towards the future. Given concerns about the future of the ICT sector in terms of skills shortages and gender imbalances, an understanding of how female...

At the heart of British drug policy lies a prohibitionist stance that prioritises the relationship between drugs and crime, resulting in both increased medicalisation based on outdated notions of addiction and compulsion, and increased criminalisation dominated by ‘war on drugs’ and ‘law and order’ discourses. This chapter looks at a new wave of pr...

Background: Between 2002 and 2005 fresh or unprepared psilocin-based 'magic' mushrooms were legal to possess and traffic in the UK, and commercial sales demonstrated a significant market for this hallu-cinogenic drug. During and after this time there has been relatively little analysis concerning how magic mushroom users accounted for their drug us...

This paper introduces key findings from a large-scale, online survey of women in the ICT industry across England undertaken between October 2004 and October 2005. Placed in a theoretical framework which draws on critical perspectives from within information systems (IS), and the sociology of gender and of technology, the authors examine some of the...

In January 2006 ketamine shifted from medical regulation through the Medicines Act to a Class C drug through an amendment to the Misuse of Drugs Act. In the debate surrounding this criminalisation, interest has grown in prevalence and patterns of ketamine consumption. Such information is scarce however, particularly given that ketamine has yet to b...

This paper reflects on aspects of gender and IT work. The core hypothesis is that, if technical skill and masculinity are fundamentally related, then women working in IT jobs who are, in effect, challenging masculine skills by gaining them themselves, must develop a number of strategies to cope with the challenge that they feel is being made to the...

This paper reflects on aspects of gender and IT work. The core hypothesis is that, if technical skill and masculinity are fundamentally related, then women working in IT jobs who are, in effect, challenging masculine skills by gaining them themselves, must develop a number of strategies to cope with the challenge that they feel is being made to the...

The vast majority of young drug users see substance use as a positive experience. Why else would they continue to take them? Most research on the other hand pathologises drug use by looking solely at the negative consequences, contributing to the misunderstanding that young people are increasingly self-indulgent and, in a meaningless world, hell-be...

This article discusses the role of drug consumption in the lives of young 'clubbers'. Arguing that debates over the consumption of drugs and youth transitions both serve to 'problematise' young people the suggestion is made that the role of drug consumption in dance-related settings remains largely misunderstood. As such, the article discusses qual...

Smiling at a stranger in the dark confines of a hot and sweaty basement. Holding your arms up in the air, perhaps grasping the hand of someone nearby and eheering as the laser lights dip low over the crowd. Waiting for the bass-line to kick in so you can start stomping your feet on the sticky dance fioor. The time nervously waiting in the queue to...

In a hundred clubs and parties, molecules will wrench apart and recombine in now familiar ways, as chemically upgraded minds vibrate with the rich harmonies of desire. As hearts quicken under hard muscles eager to dance, recalibrated eyes will register the richly velvet texture of skin and capture the bright certainties in fresh-beaded sweat. Ears...

This exploratory paper examines the various challenges that women working in information and communications technology (ICT) in England face in relation to their age, their life stage, and their career stage, with these three aspects being at least partially related. We first examine the literature currently available in relation to women, age and...

summa rising work on gender and the IT labour market in the UK. We then discuss the implications of gender and IT issues in relation to HRM discourse and practices. Findings from our UK-based 'gender and IT' projects are summarised, and issues such as women's diffic ulties with confidence in the IT workplace are highlighted. It is suggested that a...

This paper concentrates on the issue of work-life balance, with particular reference to women and flexible working practices in the ICT sector in the UK. We begin in general terms by looking at why work-life balance and flexible working have become part of the agenda for UK governments, employers and employees , whilst problematising the terms of r...

Project Context The Disappearing Women: Northwest ICT project was embarked upon to further understand why more women leave the sector than are being recruited, 36% of new ICT recruits in the UK (in the first quarter of 2002) were women, yet in the same period, women accounted for 46% of all leavers or ‘disappearing’ women (The DTI Women in IT Cham...