Abstract
This dissertation studies three Catholic organisations in Uganda involved in providing ‘treatment, care and support’ to people living with HIV/AIDS. Based on ten months’ fieldwork in different types of Catholic AIDS projects in Kampala and Arua dioceses, the dissertation provides a comparative perspective on divergent ways that bio-medical treatment, spiritual care and social support to people living with HIV/AIDS are combined and negotiated in the context of the antiretroviral (ARV) treatment ‘scale-up’ that has taken place in many African countries since 2004.
Combining Foucault-inspired perspectives with ethnographic studies, the dissertation explores the intersections between the Catholic organisations’ religious ideals and practices, ‘global AIDS treatment’ and the self-government the organisations attempt to promote among people living with HIV/AIDS. The analysis focuses in particular on practices of counselling and home visiting as key sites of negotiation and debate about how to govern the conduct of people with HIV/AIDS.
The dissertation makes its main argument in two parts. First, I argue that the dominant forms of government in the three Catholic organisations centres around disciplining and educating people living with HIV/AIDS to follow ‘the rules’ of ARV treatment. This form of government includes working on the responsibility of people with HIV/AIDS and their families to independently address any social or economic barriers to following these rules. With this dominant form of government, the Catholic framing of ‘holistic HIV/AIDS care’ as a matter of combining medical healing with spiritual and material assistance is side tracked, and pastoral care approaches are reconfigured as psychological techniques of self-transformation.
I then analyse how people living with HIV/AIDS negotiate following ‘the rules’ with trying to realise the potentials of ARV treatment in their own lives. I argue that the effects of the Catholic organisations’ practices of ‘treatment, care and support’ include producing new life-prolonging potentials, but also new uncertainties and inequalities.
By studying Catholic organisations involved in the ARV treatment ‘scale-up’, this dissertation contributes with a unique perspective on the scale-up. The dissertation highlights how the massive allocation of resources for ARV treatment in Sub-Saharan Africa provides only a partial potential to prolong life, and how treatment providers at the same time produce new social inequalities, by committing ARV patients to follow a meticulous self-government regime. For Catholic organisations involved in the ARV treatment scale-up, we can trace how promoting individual responsible self-government is replacing ethical questions of how to ensure human dignity in times of adversity with spiritual and material assistance.
Combining Foucault-inspired perspectives with ethnographic studies, the dissertation explores the intersections between the Catholic organisations’ religious ideals and practices, ‘global AIDS treatment’ and the self-government the organisations attempt to promote among people living with HIV/AIDS. The analysis focuses in particular on practices of counselling and home visiting as key sites of negotiation and debate about how to govern the conduct of people with HIV/AIDS.
The dissertation makes its main argument in two parts. First, I argue that the dominant forms of government in the three Catholic organisations centres around disciplining and educating people living with HIV/AIDS to follow ‘the rules’ of ARV treatment. This form of government includes working on the responsibility of people with HIV/AIDS and their families to independently address any social or economic barriers to following these rules. With this dominant form of government, the Catholic framing of ‘holistic HIV/AIDS care’ as a matter of combining medical healing with spiritual and material assistance is side tracked, and pastoral care approaches are reconfigured as psychological techniques of self-transformation.
I then analyse how people living with HIV/AIDS negotiate following ‘the rules’ with trying to realise the potentials of ARV treatment in their own lives. I argue that the effects of the Catholic organisations’ practices of ‘treatment, care and support’ include producing new life-prolonging potentials, but also new uncertainties and inequalities.
By studying Catholic organisations involved in the ARV treatment ‘scale-up’, this dissertation contributes with a unique perspective on the scale-up. The dissertation highlights how the massive allocation of resources for ARV treatment in Sub-Saharan Africa provides only a partial potential to prolong life, and how treatment providers at the same time produce new social inequalities, by committing ARV patients to follow a meticulous self-government regime. For Catholic organisations involved in the ARV treatment scale-up, we can trace how promoting individual responsible self-government is replacing ethical questions of how to ensure human dignity in times of adversity with spiritual and material assistance.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Place of Publication | Det Teologiske Fakultet, Københavns Universitet |
| Print ISBNs | 978-87-91838-35-4 |
| Publication status | Published - 16 May 2011 |
| Externally published | Yes |