“Back then” and “nowadays”: Social transition narratives in accounts of injecting drug use in an East European setting

▸ An analysis informed by narrative theory of how personal accounts of drug use transition interplay with broader narratives of social change in a 'transitional society' of post-Soviet Europe. ▸ Shows how a meta-narrative of 'social transition' serves to bridge biographical adaptations as collective experience. ▸ Argues that a meta-narrative of 'social transition' offers a cultural script that says “transition is to blame”. ▸ This helps to moderate the social harms linked to injecting drug use as well as bridge the effects of rationed expectation characterising post-Soviet society.