'Care' Beyond Reducing Harm: (Non-)Recovery and the Regulation of Online Self Harm Content
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Wadsworth, Thomas. 2025. 'Care' Beyond Reducing Harm: (Non-)Recovery and the Regulation of Online Self Harm Content. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis]
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Text ('Care' Beyond Reducing Harm: (Non-)Recovery and the Regulation of Online Self Harm Content)
SOC_thesis_WadhamT_2025.pdf - Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (5MB) | Preview |
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Text ('Care' Beyond Reducing Harm: (Non-)Recovery and the Regulation of Online Self Harm Content)
SOC_thesis_WadhamT_2025_PRACTICE.pdf - Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (17MB) | Preview |
Abstract or Description
Self-harm content on social media is increasingly discussed as in need of regulation, yet proposed policy centres only one narrative – that of recovery. This is a practice-based thesis organised into two complimentary parts: a textual analysis of online content, and a collaborative zine. Together, these argue for an understanding of self-harm on social media that goes beyond the lens of recovery to engage with the varied range of affects and embodied lived experiences online. Recovery, here, is understood as a complex term that has been flattened under neoliberal healthcare to become focused on individual autonomy and the need to judge techniques by their efficacy in producing ‘positive’ outcomes.
I engage in a close reading of the Online Safety Act and surrounding discourse. This analysis demonstrates the ways in which self-harm content ends up being divided between good posts that follow a specific recovery-oriented narrative and bad posts that ‘encourage’ self-harm. Through contrasting the range of affects online to language contemporary regulation, I contest the boundaries between good and bad content, as well as the binary of active users furthering their own health, versus passive victims in need of support. I do this by utilising a range of digital methods, in-depth interviews, and the production of a “more than harm-reduction” zine.
These findings then lead to a questioning of the divide between health and harm embedded in the response to self-harm content. I propose that, instead of regulation based on reducing harm, there should be a shift to “more-than-harm-reduction”, which involves understanding how different affects online are flattened if viewed only through the lens of recovery. The co-created zine forms part of this analysis, and it, jointly with my written conclusion, argues for the need for localised care beyond the large scale of government and big tech.
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Item Type: |
Thesis (Doctoral) |
| Identification Number (DOI): |
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| Keywords: |
Self-Harm; Social Media; Recovery; Online Safety Act |
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| Date: |
30 June 2025 |
| Item ID: |
39193 |
| Date Deposited: |
14 Jul 2025 14:49 |
| Last Modified: |
14 Jul 2025 16:18 |
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URI: |
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