‘Othering’ in peer education: a case study of the rebirth peer education program in China

Peer education has been extensively incorporated into various inclusion schemes, for purposes ranging from health promotion to participant empowerment. This paper examines the impact of peer education on reducing stigmatization in marginalized populations through an examination of the structure and activities of Rebirth Peer Education, a Chinese anti-drug peer education program. Based on the thematic analysis of organizational documents and interview data collected from RPE’s social workers, peer educators, and peer members, this study finds that peer education can actually work to exacerbate the stigmatization and marginalization of people who use drugs (PWUD) through the ‘othering’ processes encountered in these programs. ‘Othering’ is a process in which those who are considered different are labelled, dismissed and scapegoated. Consequently, this process also stigmatizes and marginalizes those who are defined as ‘others.’ In RPE, ‘othering’ takes place through the organizations’ recruitment and promotion processes, which are based on and further reinforce a perception of ‘clean,’ strong-willed, former PWUD and ‘unclean,’ weak, current PWUD. The glorification of peer educators further works to ‘other’ PWUD. The results suggest that peer education has the potential to further, rather than reduce, the stigmatization of PWUD.