ISBN:
978-0-226-82554-0
,
022682554X
,
978-0-226-82571-7
,
022682571X
Language:
English
Pages:
viii, 288 Seiten :
,
Illustrationen, Diagramme, Karten ;
,
23 cm.
Parallel Title:
Erscheint auch als
Keywords:
Balaka (Malawi) / Population
;
Balaka (Malawi) / Social conditions / 21st century
;
Malawi / Balaka
;
2000-2099
;
AIDS (Disease) / Social aspects / Malawi / Balaka
;
Risk / Sociological aspects
;
Population / Health aspects
;
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / African Studies
;
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Methodology
;
AIDS (Disease) / Social aspects
;
Population
;
Social conditions
;
HIV.
;
Epidemie.
;
Sozialer Wandel.
;
Malawi.
;
HIV
;
Epidemie
;
Sozialer Wandel
Abstract:
"In An Epidemic of Uncertainty, Jenny Trinitapoli advances a new model for studying social life by emphasizing something that social scientists routinely omit from their theories, models, and measures--what people know they don't know. The book takes Malawi's ongoing AIDS epidemic as its entry point for understanding the stakes of uncertainty. After a four-decades-long battle, new infections are down and AIDS-related mortality has declined. But in the wake of pandemic AIDS, an epidemic of uncertainty persists; at any given point in time, half the population doesn't know their HIV status. The author argues that AIDS-related uncertainty is measurable, pervasive, and impervious to biomedical solutions. The consequences of uncertainty are pertinent to multiple domains of life including relationship stability, fertility, health, and well-being. Even as HIV is transformed from a progressive, fatal infection to a chronic and manageable condition, the accompanying epidemic of uncertainty remains central to understanding social life in this part of the world. This book is based on a ground-breaking longitudinal study that documents how the lives of young adults in Balaka, Malawi, unfold over a ten-year period. Trinitapoli also makes three general contributions: first, a demography of uncertainty and a set of theoretical and empirical tools for integrating what people know they don't know into social-scientific models of human behavior; second, a decade-long longitudinal study articulating what demographic approaches have to offer the social sciences; and third, an expansive attitude toward the empirical, which brings longitudinal survey data to life by incorporating accounts of uncertainty and its resolution through ethnography designed to capture population chatter and gossip in Balaka"--
Abstract:
"A decade-long study of young adulthood in Malawi that demonstrates the impact of widespread HIV status uncertainty, laying bare the sociological implications of what is not known. An Epidemic of Uncertainty advances a new framework for studying social life by emphasizing something social scientists routinely omit from their theories, models, and measures-what people know they don't know. Taking Malawi's ongoing AIDS epidemic as an entry point, Jenny Trinitapoli shows that despite admirable declines in new HIV infections and AIDS-related mortality, an epidemic of uncertainty persists; at any given point in time, fully half of Malawian young adults don't know their HIV status. Reckoning with the impact of this uncertainty within the bustling trading town of Balaka, Trinitapoli argues that HIV-related uncertainty is measurable, pervasive, and impervious to biomedical solutions, with consequences that expand into multiple domains of life, including relationship stability, fertility, and health. Over the duration of a groundbreaking decade-long longitudinal study, rich survey data and poignant ethnographic vignettes vividly depict how individual lives and population patterns unfold against the backdrop of an ever-evolving epidemic. Even as HIV is transformed from a progressive, fatal disease to a chronic and manageable condition, the accompanying epidemic of uncertainty remains fundamental to understanding social life in this part of the world. Insisting that known unknowns can and should be integrated into social-scientific models of human behavior, An Epidemic of Uncertainty treats uncertainty as an enduring aspect, a central feature, and a powerful force in everyday life. "--
Description / Table of Contents:
Introduction : surveying the shadows of uncertainty -- Ten years in Balaka : the excellent and imperfect data of longitudinal studies -- Uncertainty demography -- The scope of HIV uncertainty -- HIV uncertainty and the limits of testing -- Relationship uncertainty and marriage instability -- Call the ankhoswe -- Ultimate uncertainties and the mortality landscape -- Conclusion : varieties of uncertainty in Balaka
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