Results indicate that smartphones are a mainstay of varsity athletes' experiences, as the athletes regularly use their smartphones to manage roles and demands across multiple contexts . Themes pertained to concurrent negative  and positive  implications of smartphone usage, making it clear that athletes' relationship with their smartphone is a complicated one. Findings contribute to the limited studies of smartphone usage among athletes, and support the notion that implications of usage exist along a continuum, rather than in distinct categories of “good” and “bad”. Results can inform practical guidelines for optimising athletes' use of smartphones in and around the sport context.Varsity athletes are a group of high performers situated within a demographic notable for smartphone usage and media-multitasking. Surprisingly, little research has examined the impact of smartphones in the lives of varsity athletes. The purpose of this exploratory, qualitative study was to begin addressing this gap by investigating varsity athletes' experiences with smartphones. Varsity athletes ( Smartphones are omnipresent in modern society, particularly among young users. In Canada, 98% of 15–24-year-olds own a smartphone , without clarifying whether a smartphone was used to access this feature. In order to gain a broad understanding of the positive and negative psychosocial implications of smartphone usage, while also acknowledging the prevalent use of smartphones to access social media Smith, , this reResearch from other domains shows us that smartphone usage can be both positive and negative, and accumulating evidence is beginning to suggest an interplay of negative and positive effects. An important distinction can be made between debilitative and facilitative  smartphone usage, based on the type, purpose, and intent of usage  have been examined. Some have started to address the potential implications of smartphone usage on athletes' performance. These studies suggest that athletes' use of smartphones and/or social media at various stages prior to sport performance can disrupt concentration  in a specific context . The focus groups helped the researchers to gain a broad understanding of varsity athletes' experiences, while drawing attention to specific examples and nuances within their shared world. Both breadth and depth of data were deemed important in this exploratory study to lay a foundation for inquiry, as well as to inform future studies. Focus groups are often used as a preliminary step in exploratory research programs, and can also stand alone as a research method in order to explore a novel or unfamiliar research topic  were conducted in-person at the host institution, in a private room. The duration of the focus group discussions ranged from 64 to 109 min (M = 85.2). The number of participants in each group allowed the exploration of a variety of perceptions and opinions , and the identification of both individual and collective perspectives and experiences in an interactive and efficient manner . The third section pertained to participants' experiences and perceptions of varsity athletics , and the fourth section dealt with participants' preference and priorities when it came to smartphones . These sections were used to set the stage for an in-depth, context-specific discussion.The fifth section honed in on participants' smartphone usage, including perceptions of usage, prevalence, and context of usage. This was first established generally , and then in-depth with questions related to usage for sport, academics, and communication, respectively . In the sixth section, participants focused in on domains of sport, school, and social life, as they discussed questions such as, “What role does your smartphone have in your life?” and, “What smartphone rules or restrictions do you have to abide by?” The final section provided the athletes an opportunity to reflect on the focus group discussion, share additional experiences, and make final comments.Guided by critical realist assumptions, it was important that participants' perspectives and interpretations were emphasised first, and then compared and consolidated by the researcher with existing empirical data. As such, an inductive, reflexive thematic analysis of the focus group data was performed. This method was chosen in order to thoroughly describe and understand the data, while also emphasising the context of the phenomenon under study. In line with a critical realist approach, reflexive thematic analysis is a method that relies on researchers to engage in continued reflexive practise and re-negotiate their analyses of the data in order to consolidate the best possible interpretation of reality. Researcher subjectivity is deemed to be a “resource” for informing data analysis, and transparency is paramount , and numbers indicate the focus group in which the athlete participated. For example, a female rugby player from the third focus group was coded as RF-3.General usage pertains to athletes' usage preferences, behaviours, and experiences that describe the nature and context of smartphone usage in the varsity sport setting.n = 17; 81%). Heavy users reported having their smartphone on them or near them at all times, and using their device for “everything” throughout the day. They described the need to check and respond to notifications constantly and with immediacy. Moderate users identified themselves in terms similar to that of heavy smartphone users, with the caveat that they regularly tried to monitor their smartphone usage, and reduce unhelpful smartphone habits. Conversely, light users  identified only feeling the need to use their phone for essential tasks, and otherwise, felt able to separate from and ignore their device, feeling no pressure to answer texts, calls, or notifications.The athletes most frequently reported using their smartphones to access Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, music, and organisational tools such as calendar, alarm, and e-mail applications. There was a divide between Android and iPhone users; out of the 21 athletes, 10 used an Android device, predominantly due to affordability. Participants were asked to classify themselves as heavy, moderate, or light smartphone users and then to provide an explanation of their self-classification. Overall, athletes self-identified as heavy, moderate, or light smartphone users, with the majority of participants referring to themselves as moderate or heavy users . They attributed much of their usage to the physical habit of picking up their phone, simply because it is always there: “It's in your sports bra. It's [with you] every time you work out. The only place it's not [with you] is in the shower, really. And even then!” (RF-2). The athletes found themselves to be using their smartphones most in the “to and from” and “waiting” times in the sport context .The athletes showed an acute awareness of their own smartphone usage, as well as others' smartphone usage, particularly the negative implications of usage across the various contexts of their lives . The athletes were in-tune with their internal dialogue warning them of their own “bad” media habits and negotiating self-control. Athletes consistently returned to social media during the focus group conversations. They passionately discussed the nature of social media in their sporting lives, and reported using social media for purposes of entertainment, self-promotion, motivation, comparison, and self-presentation, particularly “authentic” and “athletic” self-presentations. One athlete described, “People can put up two faces…You could portray that you're the greatest athlete out there, but you're not… that you're doing great, but realistically not” (TM-2a). The athletes also commented on specific smartphone functions they used in the sport context . The athletes were particular about smartphone features used in competition, practise, and dry-land training . Generally, the athletes described more productive and controlled smartphone usage in the sport context, as compared to other contexts such as in class: “[My phone] is certainly on me the majority of times. The only time it's not is if I'm at practise and at the gym, because I want to focus… You know, I wish I was that focused in class” (TM-2b).written anywhere” (BF-1). One athlete elaborated on the intensity of these social norms among his teammates:Generally, no team-wide, formal regulations existed to dictate the control of smartphone usage in the sport context, and experiences of smartphone rules were not uniform among the athletes. The majority of restrictions that athletes faced were self-imposed, coach-imposed, or based on unwritten rules to maintain respect and live up to social norms: “On our team…about an hour before games, there are no phones. Like, it's not I've gotten mad at people for having their phones out in the room. If you come in at half-time there's no reason to be on your phone checking Facebook… But, we don't have strict rules. Once, I saw a guy check his phone to see a football score after we had just lost—this was 30 s after we got in the room—and somebody just lost it [on him]. (LM-5)Some athletes described self-imposed smartphone restrictions that helped them with preparation and optimal focus in the sport context.I basically cut out all social aspects of my phone's use about 20 min before I start warming up, just cut all conversations and say, “I'm going. I'm competing. I'm focused in.” I'll put my headphones in, and then focus my usage solely on my training and competition. (TM-2a)Interestingly, for some athletes, environmental conditions such as extreme cold and water dictated whether they could use their smartphones at training and competition. Many athletes said they controlled their usage in the sport context simply due to the fact that their phone would be far away in a bag, locker, or change room. In this respect, sport created a natural separation from the smartphone.The greatest paradox expressed by the athletes pertained to the experience of being separated from their smartphone. Many identified deliberately taking a “break” from their phone as a source of relief. However, this relief was only present if athletes were not expecting or anticipating any important information via their phone. If smartphone separation was forced upon them , this could induce a state of anxiety and/or panic. One athlete explained her dichotomous position:I think I'm calmer when I know I don't need it. Because I know if I need it, then I'm waiting up checking on it, getting anxious… It's a cross between freedom and anxiety. It's freedom of “I just don't have my phone.” And then anxiety, obviously, if you are expecting something. (RF-2)Negative usage pertained to any experience of smartphone usage deemed debilitative to self-management, optimal functioning, performance, and/or well-being. The three main sub-themes pertaining to negative usage were (a) stress, (b) distraction, and (c) disengagement.The athletes experienced smartphones as a source stress induced by feelings of obligation, pressure, and FOMO, which all appeared to be intertwined. Stress was induced both by features of the smartphone and obligations associated with the smartphone. FOMO was a major component of stress induced by smartphones. Athletes reported feeling more comfortable when their phones were easily accessible: “I guess it's just a comfort thing, to have it there” (LM-5). Uniquely, athletes reported stress when separated from their phone, for fear of missing out on essential information or updates from their team and coach. One athlete mentioned, “Quite often we'll have to look at our phone to see when our event is, or to double check 500 times to make sure that it still says the same thing, always double checking” (TM-1). The athletes also discussed feeling disappointed about missing out, induced by the social scarifies they have to make as varsity athletes. This feeling was easily exacerbated by their smartphones, which allowed non-athlete peers to put pressure on the athletes to disregard their sport commitments for social events. Athletes commented that their smartphones allowed pressure from the outside world to be brought into various performance situations , and conversely, pressure from the sporting world intruding in personal situations . As one athlete explained:I find I can't handle the social media at competitions, when I'm already stressed out. I just find texting people and messages to be way too stressful for me. None of my friends who are not at the track care about how my events are going… To me, that's like the outside world at that point, and I don't really want to deal with that. I just want to deal with what's happening at the competition. (TM-1)A major catalyst of stress was obligation—a pervasive and often overwhelming negative feeling of urgent responsibility. Participants revealed that smartphone usage, and even the mere presence of a smartphone, fostered a feeling of obligation to be accessible at all times, to provide immediate responses, and to provide continuous updates, including on performance outcomes.Oh my god! It says I've seen it, I HAVE to reply now. Then, you get stressed out. (TF-1)I find it stressful sometimes, on Messenger and in a [text] conversation, if I don't want to reply, but have already seen it, it's like: Participants noted that while this feeling of obligation is likely not unique to athletes, it is intensified for varsity athletes, due to the demands of their coaches in particular. The athletes felt that communication from their coaches was something they could not ignore or save for later. Thus, the athletes agreed that the smartphone communication habits of their coaches would directly implicate their own smartphone habits and sense of obligation to stay connected. One athlete explained, “[As an athlete], I think the requirements of how often you should check your phone are higher… more serious. You don't have a choice if your coach is emailing you; he's not going to wait” (BF-1).Moreover, several athletes felt that a unique aspect of social media in their lives was the pressure to properly represent their institution. As one athlete explained:Every team has started an Insta[gram] or Twitter. I think everybody's trying to push that on us…and that differs from the regular student body. We don't even have a choice, really. We're just already implicated… Public space is a public space. So we're implicated whether we want it or not. (RF-2)Obligation to the university made a number of athletes feel that they had to be active on social media, even if they preferred not to be. The athletes also discussed their obligation to be ever-aware of their social media presence, modelling respectable behaviour. Notably, some athletes felt their university's representation of them on social media was a direct reflection of the institution's support (or lack of support) for their sport. Some athletes described how the university's social media made them feel disregarded and overlooked by the institution. One athlete described being “bumped” out of the way by more popular sports:We got double banners, beat [our rivals]… We got one post [on social media], which was then bumped 5 min later by a men's game [happening] in 3 weeks… We just did something huge; we creamed them. And we get bumped. (XF-3)Participants also discussed their smartphones as a source of distraction that could consume their attention and lead them to engage in absent-minded, non-task-specific thinking or behaviour. They explained that distraction could be related to features of the phone, the mere presence of the phone, and even thoughts about the phone. Athletes' experiences of distraction led to time-wasting, usage regret, and idleness.I find it gets so easy to just kick back and be like, “Oh, Instagram. Cool picture of windsurfing. Cool picture of kayaking. Cool thing fencing. Cool thing skiing,” and then 2 h go by and I'm like, “I haven't written any of my thesis and it's due tomorrow!” That sucks. (FM-3)Many athletes also reported that their smartphones distracted them from their ideal sleep routine. It was before bed that athletes felt the least control over their phone usage. One athlete gave an example, “Last night, I was in bed at 10:30 pm and a friend texted me, and it turned into a deep conversation. Two hours later I'm like, ‘Wow, that smartphone just robbed me of 2 h of very precious sleep”' (TM-1). The athletes noted several similar experiences of becoming “trapped” by the constant influx of content on their phones: “Before I go to bed, usually I go on social media. And I think at that point [my smartphone] kind of controls me, because I'm so tired, but I'm still scrolling… even though I really want to go to bed” (SwW-4).In the sport context, some athletes repeatedly checked phones during short breaks at training instead of staying focused on the task at hand. They explained that during these short breaks, they would become distracted by their phone notifications , and would focus on negotiating to the urgency and importance of checking and responding to them. For example, “During that break, you know you'll go get water. So, if I know someone is needing an answer, I'll go run and check it [my smartphone]” (FM-3). Another commented, “It really depends what the message is about, or if I was messaging someone previously, I would message them back. Sometimes, I realise, ‘Will this help me? Or not?”' (XF-1). Moreover, several athletes allowed themselves to be distracted by re-negotiating their self-imposed usage restrictions at training or competition if they were expecting an important e-mail or message, or continuing an important conversation from outside of the sport context.Once [we] get to the venue and we're in our suits and everything, I usually just put my phone in my bag… Unless I'm waiting for an email back or waiting for a text back or something… I'm pretty bad for that; then I'll usually check my phone. (SwF-4)The athletes also discussed smartphones as a source of disengagement, whereby they were preoccupied with the smartphone to the extent that they were no longer fully participating in the task at hand: “So many times, I'll check [my phone] 1 s and [then] look up, and it's like, ‘Whoa! It's been 5min and I didn't hear anything they said” (XF-4). Athletes admitted to experiencing disengagement themselves, and being impacted by the disengagement of those around them. Specifically, athletes divulged several instances in which parents, coaches, and teammates were disengaged from competition—not cheering or watching an event—because they were preoccupied with their smartphone screen.It is really hard when you are having a shitty meet or something, and you come back from a race, and you see a bunch of people on their phone. Like, they didn't even watch you race… That can be really frustrating. When other people are zoning out and doing their own thing, it's really hard. (SwF-2)Some athletes proposed that the disengagement they were noticing was influenced by smartphone temptation, along with a lack of self-awareness and self-control. A few athletes speculated that disengagement at training or competition was not beneficial to performance “I think a lot of people who are on their social media during a swim meet aren't really into the meet, and then they don't perform as well” (SwF-4). One athlete described a perceived link between disengagement and a lack of intensity, which he attributed to excessive smartphone and social media usage:It's almost like there's no intensity with them [rookies] when they're practising. Like if it's not funny or comical, or doesn't send them a notification that something's going to happen, then they're not concerned about it at all… They're just not there ever, ever. (LM-5)Well, why weren't you watching? You were literally sitting right here!” (SwF-2). “They devalue what you just did. Why would you ask that?. Why didn't you just take the time to pay attention if you really care?” (RF-2). There was a consensus among participants that many people in the sport arena, including athletes and spectators, were more concerned with posting than experiencing the event at hand. Some of the athletes' sentiments included, “Everything now is about showing off to people that you've done shit instead of doing it” (SwM-4), and, “They'll only want to go there so they can get a good picture” (RF-3).These experiences of disengagement led some athletes to perceive isolation at competition, as well as low team cohesion and support. Two athletes discussed this experience post-performance, “You come up to someone and they're like, “Oh how did it go?”… Positive usage pertained to any experience of smartphone usage deemed facilitative to self-management, optimal functioning, performance, and/or well-being. The two main sub-themes identified were (a) self-regulation and (b) social connectedness.For all athletes, the smartphone functioned as an accessible, efficient multitool that allowed them to self-regulate  in a variety of domains. As one athlete described, “I think [the smartphone] can be very, very useful because it's basically like a super swiss army knife in your pocket” (SwM-3). The majority of participants reported that their phones were an essential tool, and described using the smartphone to successfully manage various aspects of their learning, performance, and day-to-day functioning:One of the biggest things about being a student athlete is being organised… and [the smartphone] is just a great tool, because it takes less time. And we're already so pressed for time. we all see how it helps, and how it enhances our productivity. (RF-3)Importantly, smartphones allowed athletes to do this immediately, in any setting, and often remotely, so they felt more in control of their learning and workload when dealing with multiple demands. As one athlete explained:I used to be a teacher's assistant, and I would get emails [about] my thesis and other projects. After my shower, I would sit down for 20 min in the locker room and just answer every single one…. The smartphone was really, really useful for that, so I could just get through it. (SwM-3)Participants widely reported the use of smartphones for self-regulation in sport, particularly during independent training and preparation: “I use [my smartphone] every day. I schedule everything. I use it for practise, I log my weights, and my distances in my approaches, and stuff like that” (TM-2b). For example, they talked about using notes and music during sport preparation to increase focus, motivation, and mental readiness. One athlete noted, “For mental preparation, I think all of us use [smartphones] for music, to block sounds from around us… I use music to prepare myself to get focused and list the things I need to focus on while I race” (SwM-4). Another athlete explained:In my warmup, I heavily use my phone. I'll always have music. I have in my notes who we're playing and people to look out for, their tendencies and points. Then, if it's a bus ride, I'm usually watching a game film of a previous game they played, and looking at their stats. I want to know which hand they're going to shoot with, and who's going to shoot on the power plays. The phone's huge for that, and so accessible. (LM-5)Some athletes reported using social media to facilitate motivation and goal setting, while video and photo features were used to facilitate self-reflection and evaluation. One athlete explained, “In the summer, I use my phone all the time. I'll video myself doing a movement and then I'll watch it on my phone, see how it went, put it in slow-motion. And then keep practising, doing it again.” (LM-5).Although participants reported that constant connexion with others could be a driving source of stress, they also noted the importance of their smartphone for providing meaningful connexion with others and fostering a sense of community. The athletes distinguished the importance of genuine vs. disingenuous connexion, and reported that helpful and positive connexion came from those they perceived to be genuinely interested in their well-being, development, and performance.Parents were reported to be some of the most important, genuine connexions for the athletes, particularly for those who lived away from home. In several cases, being able to remotely connect with a parent was essential to the athlete's preparation for an event, or for a debrief following it. As one athlete explained, “Sometimes I phone my mum. Sometimes quite a bit, depending on the competition and how stressed out I am. I appreciate phoning my mum or messaging her; it can just bring me back down to fairly steady” (XF-1). Another athlete commented, “Staying in contact is huge… Especially away games, when I walk out of the room, I'll take my phone out and usually I'll call my parents before getting on the bus” (LM-5). Furthermore, one athlete explained the positive way his social media fostered mass, remote communication and support from his family: “It's fun for my family to see. They look at the photos and they're like, ‘Oh, cool! You did this!” (FM-3). Many athletes reported the necessity of their smartphones in fostering this connexion to feel adequately supported in their sport pursuits.vital tool for that” (RF-2). They also used their smartphones to enhance cohesion, fun, and a sense of community among their team members, as well as among other varsity athletes, and athletes from the same sport across the nation. They described that this connexion could occur through group chats, team apps, and social media posts.The majority of athletes explained that they used smartphones to foster ongoing team communication: “Communication with the rest of the team, and the coaching staff, and everything—[the smartphone] is vital, and I say that truly understanding the meaning of the word Although the athletes reported mixed feelings related to social media presentations, they articulated an understanding of how social media posts could foster a sense of connexion and community for athletes who don't play. One athlete commented on how social media allowed rookies and benched players to feel engaged and proud to be part of the team, even if they did not play: “[Rookies] might have played; maybe they didn't. But, they were dressed for the game, and they'll take a picture and post it after and say, “So happy to be a [name of team]!” It's good! It's good that you want to show that off, and you're proud, and you're still happy, even though you didn't play… Even if you didn't get picked, it doesn't mean you didn't help us get here” (RF-3).A few athletes explained how positive presentations on social media could serve as a tool for athletes to derive positive gains from a difficult outcome: “But, we do that [positive social media posts] because we're trying to be positive. Our coach always says, ‘It was a good meet! It was hard!' … People are just trying to be positive and hype it up a bit more” (SF-3). One athlete commented her fellow athletes will often use social media platforms to candidly share about losses and difficult performance outcomes, in order to seek support and connexion from their sport community.Because it's such a small sport, people are constantly saying, “Oh I didn't perform, but this is why….” So often you'll see photos of, “Rough weekend of racing; didn't have my legs”… You know people are saying it to make themselves feel better, because [it] was a great race but you didn't like your results. (XF-3)The aim of this study was to explore varsity athletes' positive and negative smartphone experiences, with the intent of providing insight into how they are using their smartphones and how their usage is impacting their experience of being a varsity athlete. Results show that smartphones were highly used by the sample of varsity athletes, with 81% of them self-identifying as being moderate or heavy users, relying on their device throughout the day. Moreover, smartphones were largely used for social media, communication, and organisation. This is congruent with characteristics of the general population, and particularly the iGen  as catalysts of internal and external distraction, absent-minded usage, inattention, sleep disruption, and media multitasking, which can be debilitative to performance and well-being . This is likely because in active training and competition situations, athletes are naturally, physically separated from their smartphones, a characteristic of the sport setting that was highlighted by participants. Ward et al.  have shoResults also point to smartphones as a source of disengagement in the sport context. Athletes reported that the disengaged behaviour of friends, family, coaches, and teammates, due to their use of smartphones during training and competitions , caused detriments to athletes' sense of team cohesion and support. In line with this, research suggests that smartphones are influencing interference and disengagement in social situations  among users increased their perceptions of support through social media. The results from our study show that social media may provide a unique space for athletes to debrief, reframe, and seek support following difficult sport events and outcomes. Taken together, the use of smartphones and social media for connexion, community-building, and social support among varsity athletes could foster opportunities for enhanced well-being, and help to mitigate pitfalls of varsity athletics such as increased stress and isolation . This is in line with other literature highlighting the multi-faceted use of smartphones among young people , all the while fostering stress, FOMO, and a sense of obligation. While there are both positive and negative implications of smartphone usage for varsity athletes, these implications may exist along a continuum, rather than within succinct, polarised categories. Although the athletes shared common experiences and perspectives of smartphone usage, their personal preferences, habits, and outcomes of usage were nuanced and idiosyncratic across contexts and situations. Similarly, Chan and colleagues (2015) reported a dichotomy in the lived experiences of students' smartphone usage for learning purposes. The authors also introduced the notion of a continuum of “serendipitous and purposive” mobile learning, shaped by time and intent of usage (p. 101). A similar continuum appears to be applicable to this cohort of varsity athletes, pointing to helpful and unhelpful aspects of usage that fluidly coexist. According to student-athletes in this study, context of usage is another important dimension to consider within this continuum of usage. A few other studies examining how social media and smartphone usage impact well-being underscore similar convoluted areas , and so, simply focusing on the negative implications of usage does not acknowledge the full range of athletes' interactions with their phones. Building on this, and in line with Durand-Bush and DesClouds's  suggestiResults of this study show that athletes had a high level of self-awareness and were deeply in tune with the various facilitative and debilitative implications of their smartphone usage, as well as their internal dialogue cautioning them about their media habits. However, they appeared to lack self-control in certain situations. In line with research showing young user's acute awareness of usage, and inclination to use their phone in unscheduled times  were not represented in the focus groups. Consequently, broad generalisations should not be made. Nonetheless, the results of this study give insight into the complex and nuanced experiences that varsity athletes may have with their smartphones. It is clear that there are both benefits and drawbacks from using these devices in and around the sport context, leading athletes to perceive a complex relationship with their smartphones. This manuscript constitutes a first step in research on the impact of smartphone usage in athletes' lives, and can inform a breadth of future studies in this area. This study also provides a foundation for the development of evidence-based guidelines for smartphone usage in sport, which consider the full range of helpful and unhelpful uses of this technology.Findings can inform future research in a number of ways. For example, studies should aim to investigate the longitudinal impact of smartphone usage on athletes, considering variables such as time, purpose, and context of usage. Researchers should also examine specific characteristics  and outcomes of usage, including sport performance and well-being. Moreover, social media was a prevalent feature of the athletes' smartphone experiences, used for sport-specific purposes such as self-monitoring, reflection, comparisons, and self-presentation. As such, research should continue to explore the role of social media in athletes lives, including the role of social media within the self-regulatory processes of athletes. Given the dichotomous findings regarding self-regulation and self-control, scholars should look at the interplay between smartphone usage and these variables. Finally, studies should focus on the potential of smartphones to foster self-regulatory learning in the sport context, to better understand whether and how purpose-driven usage might enhance sport learning, performance, and overall mental health.Smartphones are powerful, omnipresent devices capable of generating both negative and positive experiences in the sport context. Negative implications of usage in this study included stress, distraction, and disengagement, while positive influences involved self-regulation and social connectedness. Smartphones concurrently offer challenges and opportunities for varsity athletes, underscoring the importance of effective self-regulation and self-control to leverage the benefits and mitigate the risks of these devices. Athletes' relationship with their smartphone is complicated and nuanced, suggesting that usage is best viewed on a continuum, rather than through two polarised ends. Time, purpose, and context of usage are important variables to consider when exploring the impact of smartphones on varsity athletes.poppy.desclouds@uottawa.ca.The datasets generated for this article are not readily available because approval from the Research Ethics Board is required in order to release any data from this project. Requests to access the datasets should be directed to Poppy DesClouds, The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by The Health Sciences and Science Research Ethics Board, Office of Research Ethics and Integrity, University of Ottawa. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.PD conceived and carried out the research project in consultation with ND-B, and wrote the manuscript. ND-B supervised the project, provided critical feedback, and edited the manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.


The word ‘mindfulness,’ relatively unheard-of in medical education before 1998, hasbecome a guiding principle of some thoughtful efforts to promote reflection, self-awarenessand well-being in pre- and post-graduate and continuing medical education. Mindfulnessrefers equally to attentive focus and adapting to the unexpected in the operating room asit does to conducing a family meeting regarding a dying patient. While the emphasis onmindfulness is welcome for those entering and practicing an increasingly beleagueredprofession, the term has also become popularized, conflated with particular techniques andpractices, and associated with claims that range from the sensible to the sensational.There is also confusion about what ‘being mindful’ actually is, reflected in the divergentand heterogeneous educational programs claiming to cultivate it .in themoment during every day work—and with the goal to act with clarity, resolve,compassion, practical wisdom and interpersonal effectiveness [Mindfulness, in my view, is not a ‘thing’ but rather a vector; it is dynamic and headingtoward goals that are pragmatic and ethically robust. In fact, the origins of the word‘mindfulness’ are within the context of a philosophical frame that emphasizes ‘rightmindfulness’ as one of eight principles for living a righteous and transformative life.Mindfulness is not the same as reflection. While reflection often refers to activitiesundertaken after-the-fact , mindftiveness . Particutiveness . LeavingThe clarity of intent and methods in the Show and Tell in this issue by Tom Hutchinsonand Stephen Liben about their novel curricular elements at McGill University areparticularly welcome . Their pteach someone to be mindful, reflective andself-aware? Or, rather, do you till the soil, provide water and nutrients, pull a fewweeds, and optimize the conditions under which those qualities can grow? Rollo May, anothermid-20th-century psychologist, once said that ‘human freedominvolves our capacity to pause between stimulus and response and, in that pause, tochoose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight[.’ In medicine, the stimuli happen quickly and often underduress—a cardiopulmonary resuscitation, an angry patient, a grieving clinician, anunanticipated turn of events. The qualities of mindfulness, humanism, empathy, clarity andpragmatism must suffuse that moment in order to informresponses that are concordant with what we conceptualize as best practice. Like manyaspects of medical expertise, this is a lifetime of work, not merely a course.Drs. Hutchinson and Liben raise some important challenges to doing this work, challengesthat our mindful practice group at the University of Rochester has also faced. First, canyou actually r weight.’ In medSecond, how do you know when someone is practicing mindfully? Validated scales ofmindfulness  might beThird, who can and should teach skills of mindfulness, self-awareness and reflection?Here, commitment to self-awareness in one’s own life is fundamental, whether through dailycontemplative practice or other means. Self-awareness, and mindfulness, are more thanpersonal qualities, they are habits, and those habits become part of who we are.Transparency about how we, as teachers, have learned and sustain those habits can beenormously instructive to learners at every level. Imparting information and being theexpert is important at times, but equally important are the skills of deep listening, smallgroup process, practical wisdom and embodiment. Such teachers need training and ongoingmentoring and the medical education enterprise needs to invest in ongoing facultydevelopment.Mindfulness-oriented medical educational programs are becoming mainstream and now facethe test of applying them in the messy realities of clinical training. We should be carefulto be aware of the promises as well as the challenges in moving forward, and not expectingtoo much, or too little, from efforts such as those at McGill and elsewhere. One outcome ofthese efforts—at McGill and also at Rochester, and not part of the stated intent—has beena greater sense of community . Recent


The article provides an ethnographic study of the lives of the ‘dangerous class’of drug users based on fieldwork carried out among different drug using‘communities’ in Tehran between 2012 and 2016. The primary objective is toarticulate the presence of this category within modern Iran, its uses and itsabuses in relation to the political. What drives the narration is not only theaccount of this lumpen, plebeian group vis à vis the state, but also the waypower has affected their agency, their capacity to be present in the city, andhow capital/power and the dangerous/lumpen life come to terms, to conflict, andto the production of new situations which affect urban life. Out from their mothers’ wombThey found themselves on the walkway or in prehistoriclawns, signed up in registriesthat want them ignored by all history…La religione del mio tempo [TheReligion of My Time], 1959).Under the highway bridges of Teheran’s ever-expanding urban landscape or in thealleys and backstreets of its popular neighbourhoods, a spectre is haunting therespectable middle-class and, with it, the state: the spectre of the ‘addict’.mahallé, neighbourhoods, part of the Shemiranat district.The shrine hosts one of the countless descendants of the Shi’a Imams, who is thoughtto have arrived in the area with the Eighth Imam, Imam Reza, whose mausoleum sits inMashhad, the capital of Khorasan, in North-Eastern Iran. So, on one side of thevalley there is the shrine and on the other a shelter for homeless drug users. Thebody and the spirit of Tehranis find solace in their own ways.These garbage collectors walk around furtively; their presence evidently bothers theneighbourhood residents, who belong to the white-collar middle class. Following thisflow of collectors up the road, I end up in an open green space which is just southof the Emamzadeh Davoud, an old shrine in North Tehran. It is one of Tehran’sancient patoq, ‘hangout’, do not live in theneighbourhood, although there are locals who spend their evenings there , where theshelter is located, has become a notorious site of drug use and open drug dealing inthe last decade following the arrests and clampdowns in other areas of Tehran.Journalists have named it ‘The Autonomous Area of Farahzad’, while the police haveattempted, for some time, unsuccessfully to bust the drug lord of Farahzad, SaidSahné, allegedly one of the biggest in town .3 On the other side, there is the tarazudar, the‘weight-scaler man’ who is the person in charge of drug dealing, especiallyquantities exceeding the single dose. The tarazudar dispensesheroin, a substance in vogue in Tehran since the late 1950s (shisheh), the stimulant drug which had become popular sincethe mid-2000s. The main stash of drugs, I’m told, is secreted in several places bythe local boss. In case of police raid, which is not an unforeseeable occurrence,the main dealer has the option of running away  or of hiding in the crowd of other drug users. In the latterscenario, he risks being arrested but avoids being recognised as a dealer. He steersclear of the risk of draconian penalties for dealing, which in Iran ultimatelyincluded execution up until 2017.On flat ground surrounded by trees and streams of water lies the ‘high street’ of thete 1950s , and metpatoq is guaranteed by a number of gardankolofts, ‘roughnecks’ who act as vigilantes in the drug hotspot. Theyconsist of look-outs, informers, but also enforcers of the local order. They carryclubs and knifes but no gun, at least according to the widespread belief of those inthe surroundings. The boss of the patoq pays them a daily wage fortheir services, mostly in the form of drugs, which they re-sell, or limited monetarycompensation, or a combination of both. Strangers are dissuaded from passing throughthe patoq for fear of being taken for undercover cops orinformants. This applies at times also to humanitarian groups, such as outreachactivists who provide clean needles, condoms and primary healthcare to the peoplethere. On one occasion, following an earlier police busting operation in the area,one of the vigilantes threw a heavy wooden club at me from uphill shouting‘boro gomsho ****!’, ‘get lost, ****!’. Suspicion and distrusttowards strangers is the rule, a fact that undermines also health initiatives amongpeople using drugs, especially injectors and sex workers , named after a local dealer who, according to thelocal myth, was very tall. The atmosphere in this patoq is morerelaxed compared to that of Chehel Pelleh; there is a combinationof people from different social backgrounds, men and women, and in general youngerpeople. But not only young people frequent the enclave; it also functions as atented encampment. It is there that I encountered Fereshteh and her boyfriend.Within the befarma! Help yourself if you please!’ Idecline her kind offer of heroin, saying that I’m OK with the apple. She asks mewhether I am a recovered addict, because ‘you look good’, ‘you’re healthy’ and ‘it’sevident you’re in a good state’. Then she adds, ‘Wow, I haven’t talked to anon-addict for such a long time, it is so nice to speak to people who are notaddicts. Here everyone is an addict; everyone uses drugs or is in recovery or hasbeen addicted. All NGO workers, too, are former addicts, they all hung out here withus up until recently .’ She chases thedragon, inhales it through a tube and concludes, ‘It’s been three years since Ispoke to someone who is not an addict’.A young couple covered in dirt, with soot-streaked faces, sat in front of a smallblue tent. I met them around 10am while they were smoking heroin on a piece ofaluminium. ‘They had just woken up and were preparing their breakfast’ explainedHamid, the person who introduced me to them. Fereshteh welcomes me with a big smilewhich reveals the poor state of her teeth. Her lips are dark of the smoke of theopiate and her face swollen. She must be no older than 25, I thought. After themutual presentations she offers me an apple, as per courtesy in Iranian culture –and regardless of the destitution in which she and everyone there lived, insiststhat I must have something while we sit together. So we split the apple in two andwe eat it; her boyfriend declines to share it out of courtesy. ‘We have less thannothing and that is all I can offer you’, and taking up the aluminium Fereshtehsays, ‘Not to be impolite: shisheh (meth). Methadone, the legal substitute for opiates,does not work for her; ‘I need energy and speed, otherwise I starve’. Her heroin useis to relax and have a sound sleep: ‘mesl-e takh bekhabam’, andtake away her body pain: ‘dardam bicharam kard’. So she does heroinwhen she wakes up and before going to sleep. Shisheh keeps hergoing while at work and hustling. And, ‘for pleasure’.4Fereshteh has tried to ‘get clean’ several times. Earlier that year, she signed up ina methadone clinic, which happened to be near the shrine uphill, managed by aphilanthropic doctor who provides free-of-charge services. She had felt awful,thought of dying and that is, she continues, because her drug of choice is notheroin – and she says so while holding some in her hand – butde jure marriage, opt for informal arrangements, byliving under the same roof. This option, nonetheless, remains illegal and repressed– haphazardly – by state authorities  of sadagheye khoda, a charity for God, it saved my life, if only Iwere there asleep in the tent now, I’d be dead.’ The old man and Fereshteh don’tcare about burning their stuff to ashes, because, after all, life on the road is, toborrow from Jack Kerouac, to burn, burn, burn  drug users; the structural violence of their lives;and the political economy of lumpen existence. The primary objective is toarticulate the presence of this category within modern urban life, its uses and itsabuses in relation to power. What drives the narration is not only the account ofthis lumpen, plebeian group vis-à-vis the state, but also the way power has affectedtheir agency, their capacity to be present in the city, and how capital/power andthe dangerous/lumpen life come to terms, to conflict, and to the production of newsituations which affect urban life. The article also tackles the theoretical andhistorical frame of reference upon which the narrative is built. This includes aglimpse at the history of drug prohibition, its rationale and its connection to thecategory of class, especially to that of lumpenproletariat and the dangerous poor.In this attempt, one can bridge the hermeneutic gap in the study of the non-westernworld, where the category of ‘dangerous class’ was first enunciated. It connects thelives of cities across the Global North and South, through in-depth description oflumpen situations the reader is invited to ‘see’ how categories born out ofsociological analysis in other times and spaces can be at work, productively, in newcontexts. The intent is to add not simply to the knowledge of new historical,ethnographic cases, but to enrich the understanding of the category of the ‘lumpen’and dangerous class.patoqs, ‘deep hanging out’ , built onpersonal immersion in their life settings, including dozen visits to theing out’  in the pThe lives of lumpen drug users have become the object of structural violence producedby capitalist forms of government and exploitation . This vipar excellence, because in the popular imaginationhe/she remains useless – of no use. He/she relies on illegal income or on charityand is therefore a liability in the political economy of development. Yet, chronicdrug users – aka ‘addicts’ – are also avid consumers, the nature of drug use beingtied with chronic drug consumerism and the unending search for money/capital. Thisinescapable drive for consumption is what makes chronic drug users an essentialidentity/product of capitalist times. Therefore, ‘addicts’ are not a class, but acategory that cuts across social classes and is instrumental in discriminatingagainst the poor and the ethically underserving.One cannot speak of ‘class’ in reference to drug users. The category of drug useritself is an invention of a political machine which has listed certain substancesand plants as exceptional , but regulated others  in a flourishing capitalistmarket. This machine emerged in the first part of the 20th century concomitant withstate-led modernisation and through the influence of US anti-narcotic discourse –though countries in the Global South and, especially, in the Middle East and NorthAfrica (MENA) developed their own prohibitionist vision of the drug wars  – is disposable, precarious,wasteful, contaminated. Their death, too, is bare, as it does notleave public signs beyond statistical records  . I shall now dwell more closely onthe structural violence which has as its object the dangerous class of drugaddicts.This overlapping of medical, sociological, criminologist and political concerns is aside-effect of the medicalisation of politics vis-à-vis the categories of thedeviant. This process had among its founders the Italian physician (and‘physiognomist’) Cesare Lombroso, who first sought to preserve, on shaky medicalgrounds, the healthy from the fool and the revolutionary (‘ionari’) , an expearazel vaowbash. Its meaning is vague, but anthropologist Shahram Khosravisuggests that, since 2007, it has become a notion constructed in opposition to theromanticised image of the louti, the gallant delinquent of thetraditional neighbourhoods surrounding the bazaar , of ‘social scum’, ‘rotting mass’ and‘disintegrated mass’, arazel va awbash can be syntheticallytranslated as ‘lumpen’.Over the decades following the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the authorities referredto unruly members of the suburbs with the derogatory term arazel va awbash were systematically accusedalso of being involved in drug dealing and/or being addicted. In the officialdiscourse, being connected to drugs triggered an association with a milieu of sexualdepravity, moral decadence, alcoholism, Satanism and zurguyi,‘bullying’. The danger posed by them is that of destabilising the moral order onwhich the Islamic Republic rests its legitimacy. The lumpen people, unable to adaptto the engaged and moderniser momentum of the post-war era (post-1989), riskcontaminating its body politic. From within they contaminate through physical andpsychological deviancy: addiction. From without, they contaminate as part of an‘imperialist plot’ (toute’ este‘mari) aimed at undermining theIslamic Revolution, through the diffusion of the westernised decadent lifestyle.The law enforcement and political cadres of the Islamic Republic remained vague onwho exactly belonged to this multifarious group of dangerous individuals. Thosearrested for being Since the early days of the 1979 revolution, addicted people have never been regardedas deserving the compassion of the Islamist state. Rather than a result of Islamictenets and scriptures, the lack of compassion for drug ‘addicts’ stemmed fromsecular moral considerations rooted in the anti-drug ideology of the early 20thcentury. Indeed, large-scale criminalisation had already been operating under thePahlavi Monarchy (1925–79), justified by the need for social and culturalmodernisation . With thmosta’zafin (the Koranic term indicatingthe ‘disinherited’) was used in opposition to the capitalist, westernised class ofthe mostakbarin (‘the arrogant’). Policies in favour of the poorand the urban proletariat were legitimised as part of the promise of socialrevolution to which many had pledged in 1979, amidst the revolutionary fervour, mediated through the work of Iranian revolutionaryintellectual Ali Shariati, who supported a sui generis Islamic Liberation Theology.This legacy lasted up until the mid-1990s, when the necessities of reconstructionimplied shelving the populist love for the disinherited in favour of developmentalgoals through investment and capital accumulation. Today, governmental cadres arepledged to an implicit taboo on the use of populist categories such as themosta‘zafin.During the first years of the revolution, when Ayatollah Khomeini’s authorityremained unchallenged, the  fervour. ThedisJavad Sorkhé’s(Red Javad) tale is testimony to this condition in the Iranian setting.Large-scale developmental programmes turned the capital Tehran into the centre ofeconomic gravity, a process that speeded up the already mass urbanisation caused bywar displacement in the 1980s. The face of the drug phenomenon had also mutatedbetween the late 1990s and early 2000s, when HIV/AIDS, caused by rising heroininjection, had become a material threat to the general population  to move to Tehran in the early 1970s. He is the oldest offive brothers and two sisters. Dropping out of school during his teens, he hasworked as a taxi driver in Shahr-e Rey, bus driver assistant on the Tehran-Qomline, and petty drug dealer over the last 15 years. Opium was a formativeelement in his family life. His father and mother were both heavy opium usersand by the age of 16 Javad himself had acquired a taste for opium, hashish andlater, with his companions, heroin. His story is reminiscent of that of manyyoung men in the lumpen city. Unemployment, illegal employment, family crisis,prison, disease, violence and drug abuse. All of these, he reiterates, impededJavad’s attempt to get married: ‘no girl wanted the son of an addict’, ‘no girlwants someone without a future’, ‘all the girls look out for the rich kids’, ‘ifyou marry someone from here [the neighbourhood] it ought to be from a desperatefamily; I got enough desperation myself’. The death of his father put furtherpressure on him to sustain the family: ‘it was enough for our hand toreach our mouth, but drugs need money and we,mashallah, are all [drug] consumers!’ Javad is a 32-year-old man. Born in Islamshahr, on the outskirts of Tehran, hisfamily left their village in the Central Region , the other a powerful stimulant, an upper. His methhabit produced great mobility in the city, new encounters, more efficientwork/rest balance, but also increased paranoia and volatile relationships. Hisreactions to ordinary events, he confessed, had become more aggressive and hehad lost the capacity ‘to wait’ (cf. suts (1/10 of a gramme) and smoke it while on a strollaround town. In his own way, Javad is a plebeian flâneur of themodern city, his existence being present in the city mass butdifferently from his 19th-century equivalents, the 21st-centuryflâneur is speedy and is no gentleman.7 Unproductive, unemployed, he has nonetheless unparalleled knowledge ofurban life and landscape, whereas the flanerie of the wealthyrolls exclusively on the wheels of fancy cars. Moving from South to North, bycollective taxis, scooters, metro and walking, the presence of plebeianflâneurs is increasingly visible in modern Tehran , while killing time in southern Tehran. Inprison, he needed heroin to avoid the heavy withdrawal symptoms, so he revertedto sharing heroin with other inmates through a self-made pump or in signing upon methadone substitution programmes. ‘Thank God, I did not get AIDS! But I hadno other solution there’, he confesses while we walk around Harandi Park. Onceout of prison he failed to find a stable dwelling and spent time wandering fromparks to friends’ flats to the compulsory treatment camps to public methadoneclinics. Treatment came always against his will following police arrests in oneof the collection plans against drug addicts and thearazel.Javad was sentenced to prison on several occasions. Twice for petty dealing, oncefor thuggery. Meanwhile he developed a taste for heroin, which he smoked withthe kids  over the last decades provides the reader with a tellingpicture. In 1989, the number of drug offenders in prison totalled c. 60,000. Tenyears later it had reach 210,000 and in 2001 around 250,000.8 This steady increase of arrests is only partly justified by the moreefficient anti-narcotics enforcement of the police. Javad’s arrest following hislast prison term did not entail a specific crime, except for being a ‘dangerousaddict’, i.e. living at street level. He wasn’t arrested for dealing drugs orsmuggling illicit goods. He recollects being taken to a mandatory treatmentcamp, the notoriously violent Shafaq camp . The drug user, who has lost his/her dwelling, is equivalent to asans papiers, someone who cannot be recognised, whoseidentity is troubling. In order to exist, he/she must pursue a life outsideformal order to avoid being incarcerated or deported. To follow on the metaphorof khanemansuzi, the dwellings of street addicts become thekharabat, the ‘ruins’, the image used in Persian poetry todescribe the wine tavern, the bandits’ nest, the sacred refuge, the utmostdisrupted site of the soul.The homeless, Barzakh’ Hamid tells me, another ‘experienced’ (hisword) drug user from Darvazeh Ghar. ‘They take us, set us free, re-take us, it’slike a game’. Barzakh indicates the Islamic Limbo, the placewhere men and women wait at the end of time before God’s judgement. The Limbo,however, has its material grounds or, to put it crudely,graves. In November 2016, a shocking report inShahrvand, showed groups of more than 50 homeless drugusers living and sleeping in the graveyards of Nasirabad, on the Tehran-Savehhighway. Gathered in this cemetery, with piles of cartons, plastic bags andwood, they occupied around 20 graves. Two to four people live in each of thesepulchres where they burn wood to warm up in the freezing temperatures of theIranian plateau. Gurkhabi, ‘sleeping in graves’, became the newpublic trope which caused the piety and compassion of social media users. TheOscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi even wrote a letter to President HassanRouhani, demanding that the government intervene with urgency. Metaphors are abundant in lumpen life and they often bear empirical value. ‘Weare in ashawiyyat, the informal residences in Cairo’s hugecemetery, enjoy better conditions than those who live in the city’s crowdedsuburbs. Access to facilities, better connection to the city and insularity fromstate encroachment guarantee a safer existence ,encouraging Tehranis – and later all fellow Iranians – to bring warm clothes, foodand other essential items for those in need. The genealogic presence of lumpen life is a durable trait of the neighbourhood, whichin recent years has also seen large philanthropic activities. The presence of civilsociety groups had in fact become central in this area and public attention hadreached its zenith when in autumn 2015 several groups of volunteers, humanitariangroups and philanthropic citizens started to bring cooked meals and clothes to thepark and distributed them among the drug users. I happened to be in theneighbourhood during a few of these instances. Well-dressed women who attendedcharitable events taking place in the area would often take large pots of rice andstew and distribute them in the park. The courtesy, as it happened, provokedskirmishes and fights among the numerous homeless people in the park, who attemptedto secure a warm, often sophisticated, Persian dish. Some of the women remainedbaffled by the violent scenes and would soon walk – if not run – out of the park.Despite the incident, the area witnessed a steady increase in charitable work. A fewmonths later, a charity organisation started to paint across Iranian cities,starting from Tehran, ‘walls of kindness’ ,an event which took place across the four parks of Harandi, Razi, Baharan and Shush, the main organiser of the event and director of the House ofSun, had long been working in this neighbourhood. While those attending the marathonhad gathered in the courtyard of the NGO, she held the microphone and said, ‘one ofour objectives is to catch the attention of the public officials and people towardsyour problems: lack of employment, absent housing, insurance and treatment, respectand social inclusion’. A few weeks following the marathon, a group of 40 men raidedthe informal camp in Harandi Park, set on fire several tents, and attacked a numberof street drug users with sticks and clubs. The municipality declared that theattack was perpetrated ‘by the people’, denying any responsibility. Others hinted atthe lack of responsiveness of the police . Yetit is about work that one is speaking and not charity or theft, although stolengoods are just as good in this economy.Reza comes from a well-off family, but he was expelled from his wife’s house becausehe was addicted to morphine. He now lives in a small room rented in the south ofTehran, where he carries on his morphine use, plus smoking meth. Recently he signedup to a methadone substitution programme and he is now trying to get off both drugs.He speaks frankly with me (while I often found him lying to the NGO workers withwhom he sometime volunteers): ‘I still do leitmotif in my discussions with homeless users, isalso common in other types of employment. Female drug users face a higher risk inthe illegal market of drugs. Their bodies are an exchange product when monetarycapital is absent. Hence, many sex workers make use of methamphetamine  to provide better sexual experience to their clients. It issometimes the case that the client requires the sex worker to consume the drug incompany before sexual intercourse. Meth is a powerful sexual inhibitor and ittriggers sexual impulse where desire is absent or recalcitrant. Drugs help to copewith the pain and danger of sexual commerce and, in that way, sex working islikelier to pave the way to a strong addiction. Ali Cheraq-qovveh(Ali ‘Torch’), another young man with whom I carried out my fieldwork, discusseddrugs and sex with me, while telling me about his attempts at recovery:posht-am garm bud, I was on the safeside. But I never dared to take advantage of these girls, I used to tellthem, ‘if you don’t have money come and use with me, but don’t sellyourself, I can share it with you’. It was nice to have some female companyanyway so I didn’t mind.I learnt a lot because of my drug use, I went to many places, I met manygirls, who otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to meet. They didn’t havemoney and were ready to give themselves in exchange for drugs, or did nothave a place to use and since I had a room, they would ask me to come thereto use and spend time with me. Money, I didn’t have much, but I had a placeand the drugs. At the time, a lot of heroin passed through my hands and Igot some cuts on it, Mohsen’s kindness was perhaps a way to keep his reputation clean withme. But his narrative holds water:I always kept in consideration God, even during the period when I only useddrugs, when I would beg to get the money, I would still share the drugs withthose who couldn’t afford it. I was a boy, I could collect rubbish, I couldbeg, but a girl, can she collect rubbish? Can she beg for money withoutrisk? In these times of ours a girl who asks for money to anyone can betaken away, don’t you know?The gendered dimension of lumpen life puts female drug users from poorbackgrounds in the open market of sex and drugs. In this context, sharing iscaring and may imply sexual concessions or friendship, whether to avoidthe risk of using in public (when one’s safe space is narrow) or to extract enoughcapital to sustain one’s drug consumption. Sharing, however, is part of thepolitical economy of drug use also in that it establishes lasting bonds of mutuality– at the risk of contagious diseases such as hepatitis and HIV (Chemical calibration was an expedient that Reza used to be more productive. Mobilityand focus helped him not to get lost in the dregs of narcotic dependence. Thepractice, a  and HIV . Sharingdeus ex machina called ‘addiction’. It is based on whatI call ‘chemical calibration’, for instance in the use of shishehas a productive drug to hustling and heroin as a tranquillizer and painkiller amidsheer destitution. Philanthropy is just one side of the lumpen economy in thecity.The economic life of lumpen drug users is made of daily expediencies, such as barter,repairing, collecting abandoned objects, selling minimal items, begging andresorting to charity. It is a diverse ecosystem which changes according to personaland structural conditions. The use of drugs is not mechanically experienced anddriven by a NA [Narcotic Anonymous], or to a treatmentcamp. Sir ta piazesho bebiné. Mazi, you’ve got this work onthe addicts, you come from Oxford, you’re cool and know all the numbers. Nowyou want to understand how desperate people live? You need to get destroyedin it [khurd besham] to understand the life of a desperateaddict.If you want to know what it means to be poor, you have to get involved andmix with the poor, if you want to know what is an addict, you have to mixwith them. One doesn’t know about drugs, take him for a month to themeetings of in danger.Mohsen’s incitement to immerse myself in the discourse of addiction, poverty anddangerous life was powerful methodological advice which seconded my theoreticalapproach ‘from below’ and my decision to go ethnographic. This perspective debunksknowledge gathered from elite interviews and epidemiological interpretation of drugabuse, which represent a good deal of studies into drug phenomena, including in Iranwhere epidemiology is the standard approach in drug studies. Top-down approaches,albeit articulated and linear, eventually reproduce bourgeois images and tropes,their panic, facing lumpen life. Lumpen life as seen from below reassesses thestructural violence, classist xenophobia and everyday agency at work in thedangerous existences of people in praxis, govern ‘addiction’ andthe making of the poor into a dangerous class. Their fantasises, desires and pain –and even lies – may hold truths well beyond the word of the law and the statisticalrecords of politico-medical agents. It might be the case that, as Michael Taussighas suggested, ‘not the basic truths, not the Being nor the ideologies of thecenter, but the fantasies of the marginalised concerning the secret of the centerare what is most politically important to the State idea and hence State fetishism.’(In the first part of the article, I discussed how structural violence conditions andis conditioned by the everyday existence of homeless or precarious drug users. Byletting the voice of people I carried out fieldwork with ‘speak’ about their dailyoccurrences, desires and expedients, I portrayed an entryway into the addiction andanti-narcotic assemblage. Imprecise, messy and disorderly, lumpen narratives – Ibelieve – fill in the gap, with some meaning, between the attempt at theory and theempirical existences as captured though the ethnographic gaze. By showing theecologies in which this group lives and who is part of it, the argument lingered onthe structural violence of which this group is victim. This assemblage is made oftheir shanty dwellings – valleys, parks, graves – and the institutions of internment– prison, rehab, and morgue. Eventually, I described the economic activities thatenable lumpen life by exploring the combination of agency and philanthropy. It isthis panoramic view that invites the reader at an inductive approach to knowledge,which is in part a secondment of the ethnographic method that drives the analysis.On this ground, the narrative of the lumpen drug users can be revelatory of thefaultlines and rationales that, ishism.’:132.


Physical activity facilitates the acquisition of healthy habits from childhood to adulthood. There are differences in the practice of physical activity between immigrant children and native Spanish children. The aim was to describe physical activity in children, from the perspective of South American immigrant parents. A qualitative case study was conducted. Parents were recruited using purposeful sampling. Data were collected from 12 participants by means of unstructured interviews together with researcher notes. A thematic analysis was applied. The following topics were identified: (a) physical activity and health, (b) socialization, (c) the need for movement, (d) gender, (e) barriers, (f) educational burden, (g) community living, and (h) reason for immigrating. Parents described how physical activity is fundamental and has benefits for health, and for the relationship between children. They perceived that physical activity should not be limited by gender. The time dedicated to other school activities, the norms related to community living, and financial limitations were especially relevant as barriers for the performance of physical activity. These results can be used to revise the curriculum in schools, promote equal opportunities for physical activity and support family participation. The World Health Organization (WHO)  states tPrevious studies ,4,5,6,7 Physical activity in children and adolescents becomes important in relation to obesity. Obesity is a non-transmittable disease considered by the WHO as the fifth mortality factor in the world . ObesityOther factors, such as environmental and/or socio-ecological factors influence the practice of physical activity or the prevalence of obesity ,18,19,20In Spain, the immigrant population represents 10% of the total population in 2019 , and it The questions guiding this study are: How do immigrant parents perceive physical activity? What does it mean to them? Do they consider that exercise to be an educational asset or a healthy lifestyle habit that is passed on to their children? Answering these questions may help to understand the role of parents in the practice of physical activity among immigrant children and adolescents and in relation to the acquisition of healthy habits. The aim of this study was to describe the perspectives of immigrant parents on physical activity and how this applies to their children.http://www.equator-network.org/).A qualitative exploratory case study, using an interpretivist paradigm . A case 2, located 13 km southwest from Madrid, in the Metropolitan Area of Madrid, within the province of Madrid . The greatest population growth took place in the 1970s, mainly due to the settlement of immigrants from other regions of Spain [Alcorcón is a municipality of 33.73 kmof Spain . CurrentFor this reason, the authors decided to visit institutions or centers where the population of South American immigrants gather for worship, or for cultural and civic activities, and where there were greater possibilities of recruiting participants for the study. The Caritas organization of the Parish Inmaculada Concepción de Nuestra Señora and the Parish Nuestra Señora de la Saleta, where large groups of South American immigrants met every Sunday and holiday, were particularly relevant.The participants attended the Parish Inmaculada Concepción de Nuestra Señora  and the Parish Nuestra Señora de la Saleta . Both these parishes had programs for assisting and supporting the integration of immigrant families. These programs included the implementation of healthy habits in children and adolescents through physical activity.The inclusion criteria were; (a) parents living in the Community of Madrid, (b) born in countries outside Spain and the European Union, (c) who at the time of the study had children over three years old in the Spanish education system, (d) who belonged to the Caritas organization of the Parish Inmaculada Concepción de Nuestra Señora or the Parish Nuestra Señora de la Saleta, and (e) who signed the informed consent. The exclusion criteria were: (a) parents under 18 years of age, (b) refusal to participate in the study, (c) native parents (born in Spain) and (d) not signing the informed consent.In qualitative research, sampling is the process of selecting or searching for situations, contexts and/or participants that provide rich data of the phenomenon of interest . Non-proThe participants were contacted through the priest and coordinator of the family care program. Potential participants (parents) were then contacted by telephone and informed of the study. After a two-week period, they were contacted once again to confirm their participation.Data were collected via unstructured interviews conducted in Spanish . These iA thematic analysis was applied for the description and interpretation of parents’ narratives . The anaThe study was approved by the Ethics and Clinical Research Committee of the Rey Juan Carlos University (code: 3001201702417). In addition, the Data Protection Law (Law 15/1999) was complied with, guaranteeing confidentiality and good practice standards. Participation in the study was voluntary and informed consent was signed prior to conducting the interviews.In addition to following the COREQ  and SRQRThe study began in February 2017 and was completed in June 2017. Twelve participants were included (seven women and five men), with a mean age of 41. The participants came from different regions of South America . All were defined as having a low or low/middle socio-economic level. The demographic characteristics and physical activity habits of participants are shown in The themes identified were: Physical Activity and Health, Socialization, The Need for Movement, Gender, Barriers, Educational Burden, Community Living and The Reason for Immigrating. The results are presented below with fragments of the participants’ original narratives to justify the results obtained . Addition = 9) described how physical activity leads to better fitness, better health, improved quality of life and physical well-being: “Being more active, more agile, and breathing better, feeling better in general” .Participants ; “Changing your routine, obtaining relief, is a way of relieving everyday tension, even, calming the mind” .n = 8), physical activity supports socialization and helps instill certain values in their children. The narratives highlight the relevance of this for parents: “It is very important for them to practice physical activity, to socialize and get along in life” ; “They share with friends at school and learn to share with people outside school, in the parks” ; “Doing something in a group is important. Belonging to a team is important” .For parents (n = 5) highlight the belief that practicing physical activity as a child can help their children be healthier when they reach adulthood: “You will always have better health conditions if you move, than if you are a sedentary person” .The narratives (n = 5), movement was a recurrent theme when qualifying and defining physical activity. Physical activity consists of movement, agility, physical space, the natural environment and play. In contrast to being sedentary, or confining a child to the house, which was compared to being cooped up in a cage: “Children live in cages, they are locked up” .For the interviewees .The narratives also revealed differences in sports practice by gender. All participants unanimously stated that there should not be any difference in physical activity practice between boys and girls. Thus, no activity should be reserved for only one sex. Every child should be free to choose and practice the activities he or she desires: “I don’t think that sport has anything to do with sexual personality. As long as they feel good” .However, all parents’ acknowledged differences between boys and girls. Boys play more football and girls play more sports like volleyball or gymnastics: “Football is played by boys. There are more and more girls, but it’s a boy thing. In my country, girls practice a lot of volleyball and rhythmic gymnastics. It is very rare for boys to play such sports” .Barriers encountered by parents when encouraging and/or practicing physical activity with their children include: economic barriers, infrastructure barriers, time-related barriers, environmental barriers, or barriers due to fear and insecurity.Eight participants reported that families must cover significant economic expenses when their children engage in any kind of organized or regulated physical activity: “If you want your child to practice, you have to pay and that seems overwhelming to me” ; “If you don’t have help, I can’t afford it. It’s an expense I can’t afford.” .A difference was highlighted between the country of origin and Spain. Family benefits are more extensive in Latin American countries, allowing families to participate in physical activities with their children: “There are associations that provide free training. There are also sports centers belonging to the city council, and everything is free” .n = 5). Families much make a great sacrifice in order to enable their children to practice some kind of activity: “I know many friends who have to make great efforts to get their children to play soccer, they sacrifice a lot for them” .The concept of “sacrifice” appeared in the participants’ narratives .n = 7) reported that the availability of sports and/or leisure infrastructures near the family home, and their distance influences the child’s physical activity. The narratives show that the absence of facilities conditions and prevents children’s engagement in physical activity: “In the case of Parla, it is an abandoned village. There is no place to do sport. There is neither a field nor a sports center to take them to, there are no sports areas” .Our participants (n = 5) reported that the greater the distance from the facilities, the less likely their children are to practice physical or sporting activities. Substantial time is involved in travelling to and from these centers: “There is a lake, it is a very big park, but mothers do not always have the availability to go there every day. It’s far away and, without a car, it’s impossible” .Parents (n = 7) must invest large amounts of their time. However, often, parents (n = 4) complained of a lack of time available, either because of an extended working day, and/or because their work hours are incompatible with the child’s leisure time. Six parents described that their working hours are intense and this does not allow them to take their children to organized physical activities or to the park: “Work has a great influence, you cannot spend enough time with them (the children) either. If you don’t have enough time, you can’t do it either” .In order for their children to be physically active, parents (n = 5). Thus, parents assigned priority to their children’s practice of physical activity and leisure above over their own: “We have a lot of work. And I prefer to spend more time with my children instead of going to do sport” ; “But I can’t do sport with the children anymore. For me it is a big obstacle to do physical activities” .This lack of time influences children’s physical activity, as well as having an impact on parents’ practice (n = 3) described how the proposed timetable for practicing sports activities was unsuitable, both for their children and for the ability to balance work/family life: “The extra-curricular activities that we can take them to, which are often more compatible with my work, are more expensive” ; “My son had a scholarship because he came first at a sports meet at the town hall, but the timetable was from 6.30 p.m. to 7.30 p.m., and I can’t take them at that time. What did I end up doing? We took him out, we couldn’t go” .Other key points raised were: the lack of time, organizing the child’s schedule and the pace of the day. The participants (n = 5) describe how the lack of nature or a natural environment near the homes is a constraint for engaging in physical activity: “In my country, there is more freedom to play sports outdoors than here, the children still go down to the street to play football” ; “We are much more limited here by the surrounding environment” .The parent´s narratives (n = 7) feel when they take their children to physical activities in an unsafe environment. Some (n = 3) felt “terrified” due to the feelings of insecurity when going to some of the parks. In addition, if there are areas that are not recommended for children because of insecurity, they feel that it is unsafe to leave children alone in the street to play ball: “The courts are full of people who hurt the children, and as a mother I feel afraid to let them go” ; “Here you feel terrified of taking them. There’s a big park, but since everyone goes, it scares you. And in the street you can’t leave them alone either” .This refers to the insecurity and fear that parents .n = 5) narrate how their children have to study a lot, both during school hours and during “so-called” leisure time. The complaint shared by all parents is that the educational burden is greater and more important than enjoying leisure time. The time dedicated to homework is a deterrent for the practice of extra-curricular activities: “They have a great deal of theory. They come super tired (from school), they have to study and they don’t want to do anything else” .It refers to the burden of homework and school-related activities that children must engage in after the school day. Parents (n = 10) felt that the school curriculum does not assign enough importance to physical activities, as the theoretical burden is very demanding: “The excess of homework compels them not to do sports or have fun” ; “The education system has bad schedules that do not let the child be a child. If school schedules were better organized, they could have more time to play and be children” .Most of the interviewees .n = 4) described how in their countries of origin there is more freedom to play or practice physical activity in the street compared to Spain. They report that, regarding the community relations between neighbors, it is accepted that children should play and do physical activity (sport): “In my country, we don’t live in buildings, we can all play in the street, people go out and everyone starts to play, they go on their bikes or dance. We don’t get angry about these things” .Parents (n = 10) acknowledged that their reason for immigrating was financial. They need to earn money to be able to send it back to their native country, or save enough to return to their country in the future. Thus, physical activity is not a priority for them. This influences their children’s physical activity and the time they spend with them, since the goal is to work more to earn more: “An immigrant wants to return to his or her country. Earn money and return. We come here to work, to earn money, and we don’t have time to be active, sometimes we don’t even have time for our own children” .Most parents , where the interviews took place, are not adapted in terms of the number of parks, sports or leisure facilities. The physical environment, with large parks or natural spaces, is a key factor for good physical practice. If the physical (urban) environment often appears as a barrier to the practice of sports, physical and leisure activities, this is exacerbated in the case of immigrant parents, who are used to having a more open and natural physical environment in their countries of origin.Lack of time is another limiting factor. The parents in this study described having long and overwhelming working hours that prevent them from doing any physical activity. Reimers et al.  reportedThe proposed schedules for organized sports activities were considered by some of our participants as an added difficulty, as they described them as incompatible with their work schedules and family life rhythms. Previous studies ,48,49 stAlso, insecurity or fear of going out can influence the decision to take children to leisure areas. Owen et al.  and MotlThe economic expense of certain physical activities  could explain a decline in the practice of exercise among children of immigrant parents. In addition, the parent’s financial situation, together with a precarious job situation and long working hours, and the need to earn money and save it, condition the ability to spend money on their child’s physical activity practice. Condon and McClean  describeFinally, the importance of knowing the perspectives of parents regarding physical activity is underlined, as parents can play a crucial role in determining their children’s sedentary behaviors. Two recent studies in Asia ,55 showeThis study has several limitations. First, we were unable to carry out a homogeneous grouping of immigrant parents by geographically defined areas. Secondly, we did not identify whether the children of the parents were born in Spain or were transferred from their country of origin. The authors believe that this limitation is controlled, since the aim of the study was to describe the perspective of the parents and not that of the children. Additionally, the present study included 12 participants, and 20 interviews have been performed. Previous qualitative studies ,33,56 haThis study describes the factors related to the physical activity of South American immigrant children from the parents’ perspective. Our results revealed that the immigrant parents who were recruited in this study perceived that their children’s physical activity was relevant and important to their future lives. However, certain barriers exist which limit and prevent the ability for foreign children to exercise, such as income, time availability or extended work shifts.These results can be used to guide the programming and organization of physical activities in the school and community environment. It is also essential to provide policies to reconcile family and work, so that the lack of time is not a hindrance to the practice of physical activity. It is essential to create policies for financial aid targeted at the most disadvantaged families. In addition, it is necessary to invest in the creation of safe spaces and sports and leisure infrastructures to promote physical activity within the community.A future line of research would be to carry out a cultural comparison between groups of immigrant and native parents, using a qualitative ethnographic design.