Revisiting the understanding of "transactional sex" in sub-Saharan Africa: A review and synthesis of the literature.

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is the region with the world's highest rates of HIV and other sexually transmissible infections (STIs), yet numerous studies show that condom use is generally rare. This suggests a need for a better understanding of how condoms fit within sexual practices and relationships in SSA. This paper seeks to address this need by reviewing research published between the late 1980s and 2011 on use and factors influencing use of male condoms in SSA. What is evident from this research is that condom use involves complex social and interpersonal dynamics, with structural and cultural conditions exerting an influence through framing social cognitions and setting boundaries on autonomy that make the apparently irrational choice of eschewing condoms a rational decision. The influences of poverty; relationships with parents, peers and partners; limited, insufficient or absent information especially in rural areas and among men who have sex with men; gender and sexual norms, and the dynamics of gendered power; and beliefs and attitudes about HIV, condoms and sexuality all have been shown to work against condom use for a large proportion of Africa's people. However, promising results are shown in trends towards increased condom use among single women in numerous countries, increasing acceptance and use of condoms among some university students, successes in producing potentially sustainable condom use resulting from select interventions, and resistance to succumbing to the dominant gender-power dynamics and structural-cultural impediments that women in groups have mobilised.

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Condoms in sub-Saharan Africa.

Sexuality is part and parcel of students' experiences of schooling manifested in personal friendships, relations and social interaction. These encounters constitute sites within which sexual identities are developed, practiced and actively produced through processes of negotiation. Drawing on qualitative research conducted in 14 selected secondary schools in Central and Western Uganda, the study illuminates gendered sexual vulnerability within patterns of social interaction and young girls gendered experiences and negotiation of their sexuality. The study reveals that through social and discursive practices, students construct complex gendered relations of domination and subordination that position boys and girls differently, often creating gender inequalities and sexual vulnerability for those gendered as girls. Girls' vulnerability is characterised by confusing and traumatic experiences fraught with double standards and silences. Typical of these experiences are complex tensions and contradictions surro...

Gender and sexual vulnerability of young women in Africa: experiences of young girls in secondary schools in Uganda

We advocate an increased utilisation of script theory in rural social research and suggest this will enhance understandings of the social life of farmers and other rural residents. We define a script as a culturally shared expression, story or common line of argument, or an expected unfolding of events, that is deemed to be appropriate or expected in a particular socially defined context, and that provides a rationale or justification for a particular issue or course of action. We suggest there are four types of script: (1) a socially perceived routine or expected sequence of events; (2) a catch-phrase, metaphor or allegory that is frequently recited in response to a particular issue or situation; (3) a mini-story, narrative or parable; and (4) a commonly used line of argument that is widely invoked in response to a particular issue or situation. Using examples from our work with farmers in the UK and Australia relating to animal health and biosecurity, and specifically bovine tuberculosis, we demonstrate how scripts affect the perceived management options of farmers in particular circumstances. We suggest that scripts have implications for policymakers and those seeking to promote practice change such as agricultural extension staff and agricultural veterinarians.

The Role and Functioning of Cultural Scripts in Farming and Agriculture

http://web2.uwindsor.ca/courses/sociology/maticka/psabh/published_papers/Maticka-Tyndale_et_al_Evaluation_2007.pdf

Quasi-experimental evaluation of a national primary school HIV intervention in Kenya

The scripting of sexual encounters among young people in Kenyan is described using results of 28 focus group discussions conducted with young people attending primary school standard 7, from four different ethnic groups and living in 22 different communities. Sexual encounters were described as both mundane and inevitable and followed a predetermined scripted sequence of events and interactions in which girls and boys played complementary roles. These scripts were set within discourses of force and the exchange of gifts for sex. The gendered nature of the script and its social and cultural foundations are discussed. Potential strategies for developing HIV prevention programming are discussed from the perspective of existing sexual scripts.

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D. A. N. Holland

Papers

The sexual scripts of Kenyan young people and HIV prevention