Citizen and subject: contemporary Africa and the legacy of late colonialism

https://cyberleninka.org/article/n/1161963.pdf

NGOs, States and Donors Revisited: Still Too Close for Comfort?

The budget speech

In this article I investigate how the moral politics of HIV/AIDS activism in South Africa is contributing toward new forms of citizenship that are concerned with both rights-based struggles and with creating collectively shared meanings of the extreme experiences of illness and stigmatization of individual HIV/AIDS sufferers. I argue that it is precisely the extremity of the "near death" experiences of full-blown AIDS and the profound stigma and "social death" associated with the later stages of the disease that produce the conditions for HIV/AIDS survivors commitment to "new life" and social activism. It is the activist mediation and retelling of these traumatic experiences that facilitates HIV/AIDS activist commitment and grassroots mobilization. It is also the profound negativity of stigma and social death that animates the activists construction of a new positive HIV-positive identity and understanding of what it means to be a citizen-activist and member of a social movement. (authors)

/pdf/from-rights-to-ritual-aids-activism-in-south-africa-2lfm4valm2.pdf

From “Rights” to “Ritual”: AIDS Activism in South Africa

Despite increasing recent emphasis on the social and structural determinants of HIV-related behavior, empirical research and interventions lag behind, partly because of the complexity of social-structural approaches. This article provides a comprehensive and practical review of the diverse literature on multi-level approaches to HIV-related behavior change in the interest of contributing to the ongoing shift to more holistic theory, research, and practice. It has the following specific aims: (1) to provide a comprehensive list of relevant variables/factors related to behavior change at all points on the individual-structural spectrum, (2) to map out and compare the characteristics of important recent multi-level models, (3) to reflect on the challenges of operating with such complex theoretical tools, and (4) to identify next steps and make actionable recommendations. Using a multi-level approach implies incorporating increasing numbers of variables and increasingly context-specific mechanisms, overall producing greater intricacies. We conclude with recommendations on how best to respond to this complexity, which include: using formative research and interdisciplinary collaboration to select the most appropriate levels and variables in a given context; measuring social and institutional variables at the appropriate level to ensure meaningful assessments of multiple levels are made; and conceptualizing intervention and research with reference to theoretical models and mechanisms to facilitate transferability, sustainability, and scalability.

/pdf/health-behavior-change-models-for-hiv-prevention-and-aids-2bvrkqt9d6.pdf

Health Behavior Change Models for HIV Prevention and AIDS Care: Practical Recommendations for a Multi-Level Approach

The current spread of democracy has not enabled the poor to use rights to win equity, raising questions about whether the poor and weak can use liberal democratic freedoms to address inequality. An oft-cited model of success, however, is the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC)’s campaign to press the South African government into distributing anti-retroviral medication to people living with HIV/AIDS. This article finds that TAC’s strategy of using the rights and rules of constitutional democracy to win gains may offer an exemplar for forms of collective action which can win substantive equality, but that the model remains of limited application.

https://ccs.ukzn.ac.za/files/FRIEDMAN%20MOTTIER%20A%20MORAL%20TO%20THE%20TALE%20LONG%20VERSION.PDF

A Rewarding Engagement? The Treatment Action Campaign and the Politics of HIV/aids

The Small Miracle: South Africa's Negotiated Settlement

Drawing on comparative research in South Africa and Uganda, this article examines how far civil society organizations influence government policy and legislation and extend citizen participation in public affairs. The article also considers how far external funding influences policy engagement and outcomes. The main finding is that few civil society organizations have either a consistent level of engagement in the policy process or make a significant difference to policy outcomes. The nature of internal governance practices in galvanizing citizens' voices and the relationship to the state and political parties are the most decisive factors in civil society organizations achieving policy influence. The article concludes that the capacity of civil society organizations to offer citizens a say in decisions and to enhance pluralism may be as important as their ability to influence policy and demand accountability from state actors.

Civil Society, Democratization, and Foreign Aid: Civic Engagement and Public Policy in South Africa and Uganda

http://archive.kubatana.net/docs/cact/mrsf_dem_foreign_aid-africa_050401.pdf

Civil society, democratisation and foreign aid in Africa

This title characterizes several lines of intellectual development by which some of the fundamental features of ancient, medieval, and modern pictures of God, Nature, Beauty, the State, and the Self came to be accepted as common knowledge in the Mediterranean world today.

/pdf/a-moral-to-the-tale-the-treatment-action-campaign-and-the-1v884z5o8x.pdf

Steven Friedman

Papers

A Rewarding Engagement? The Treatment Action Campaign and the Politics of HIV/aids

The Small Miracle: South Africa's Negotiated Settlement

Civil Society, Democratization, and Foreign Aid: Civic Engagement and Public Policy in South Africa and Uganda

Civil society, democratisation and foreign aid in Africa

A moral to the tale : the treatment action campaign and the politics of HIV/AIDS