Recovering in Place: Recovery-Supportive Environments and Place-Based Approaches to Recovery Science

Recovery science has traditionally focused on individual change, with growing recognition that recovery from substance use and behavioural addictions is also shaped by families, communities, and recovery-oriented systems of care. Recent scholarship has shifted attention beyond the individual toward recovery ecosystems, recovery ecologies, and the broader social, institutional, political, and cultural contexts that influence long-term recovery. Yet comparatively little attention has been paid to the geographic concept of place as a lens for understanding and advancing recovery. Place extends beyond physical location to encompass the physical, emotional, social, cultural, and socio-political characteristics of environments that shape whether recovery from addiction can emerge, be sustained, and become visible. Rather than treating environments as background context, this Research Topic positions place as the central object of inquiry.The goal of this Research Topic is to advance a place-based perspective on prevention, early intervention, and sustained recovery from substance use and behavioural addictions. By examining how places create or constrain the conditions for initiating and maintaining recovery, the collection aims to generate evidence that informs the design, implementation, and evaluation of recovery-supportive environments and interventions that reduce harm and strengthen long-term recovery. In particular, it seeks to understand how features such as housing, neighbourhood resources, campus and workplace cultures, and local policy shape recovery pathways, and how these insights can be translated into practice, service planning, and policy across diverse settings.Suitable themes for manuscripts include, but are not limited to:• Place-based approaches to addiction recovery and prevention;• Recovery-supportive environments and recovery-oriented systems of care;• Recovery ecosystems, recovery ecologies, and community recovery capital;• Recovery housing, collegiate recovery programmes, workplaces, and recovery-friendly communities;• Interventions and policies that create and strengthen recovery-supportive environments and communities;• Health equity, stigma reduction, and social inclusion in addiction recovery through place-based approaches;• Measurement of recovery-supportive environments, recovery ecosystems, and place-based recovery outcomes. Topic editors: Victoria Frances Burns, David Best Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/86994/recovering-in-place-recovery-supportive-environments-and-place-based-approaches-to-recovery-science