مجلة علوم الإنسان والمجتمع
Volume 15, Numéro 1, Pages 1944-1963
2026-04-30
Graffiti And The Symbolic Representations Of Drug And Psychoactive Substance Use In Urban Space: A Sociological Approach To The Murals Of Skikda City
Authors : Mecif Menouba .
Abstract
Abstract: This sociological study explores urban graffiti as a symbolic and informal form of youth expression within socially fragile urban contexts. Focusing on the city of Skikda, Algeria, it analyzes 748 documented wall writings collected in 2021 through a qualitative–semiotic approach. The findings reveal that graffiti constitutes a structured visual discourse reflecting identity crises, social alienation, and hidden narratives surrounding psychoactive substance use and symbolic resistance. Far from being a random act, graffiti emerges as an alternative communicative system through which marginalized youth reinterpret their social realities and contest exclusion. The study highlights graffiti’s potential as an early diagnostic indicator of behavioral and cultural transformations in urban environments. It recommends establishing an urban graffiti observatory, integrating semiotic literacy into preventive and educational programs, and reframing graffiti from a deviant act into a communicative tool for understanding social change.
Keywords
graffiti ; wall writings ; psychoactive substances ; addiction ; symbolic resistance ; urban sociology
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