Beyond Zinberg's ‘social setting’: a processural view of illicit drug use

Abstract This article seeks to go beyond existing understandings of ‘social setting’, or social context, in the addictions field. Using drug‐career data, collected during recent ethnographic research, the fluidity and dynamism of recreational drug‐using social scenes are described before introducing a number of anthropological and sociological concepts. These concepts are processural, that is, they seek to describe and analyze social and cultural change. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications of recognizing the diversity and ever‐changing nature of recreational drug‐using social networks are discussed.