Harm Reduction As The Commons of Care: Three Case Studies in Toronto

In the context of the current toxic drug supply crisis that has claimed the lives of over 52,000 people in Canada since 2016, the inaccessibility of publicly available washrooms, and the closure of life-saving supervised consumption sites across Ontario, there is a rising need for libraries and other public infrastructures to support the most vulnerable people in our communities. Following this thread, this dissertation takes up Berlant’s conception of “the commons” through three pragmatic and urgent case studies. Focusing on accessible washrooms and bookstores in Toronto’s gay village, Ontario’s supervised consumption sites, and a packed library school classroom, each of these three case studies locates the commons in a different style of constructed social space. On the surface, these three spaces are designed to support a positivist goodness and the infrastructures of social sanitization. However, as I unravel the implications of political rhetoric, geospatial coordination, public health policy, and moral sanitation attached to these zones of correctness, I complicate the “it gets better” narrative of forward social progress undergirding each of these case studies.Throughout this project, I argue for consistent and pragmatic action as a solution to the abject despondence produced by a crumbling infrastructure of care. Importantly, this is not a nullification of despair in the face of death and suffering, but an offering of action over hopelessness. Following the principles of harm reduction, I contend that harm is inevitable in any assemblage. Further, while harms cannot be eliminated, the magnitude of their impact can be reduced. And sometimes, that’s all we can do. Fundamentally, this project is about doing something, anything, to stem the flow of political and personal inaction in the face of seemingly impassable infrastructures. Fueled by an unrelenting dissatisfaction with how things are and an absolutely inarticulate vision of how things could be, this dissertation purposefully embraces the generative power of a push for something just a little bit better. Taking Berlant’s assertion of the commons as “an action concept” to heart, I detail the practical, real-world intervention I have applied to each case study and analyze the outcomes and implications.

Department dc:contributor.department

Information Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Hawk, Atticus

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Keilty, Patrick

• Accessibility
• Crip Technoscience
• Harm Reduction
• Library Science
• MLIS Education
• Opioid Crisis

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1807/150742

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:utoronto.scholaris.ca:1807/150742