TY - JOUR
T1 - Popular moralities and institutional rationalities in Malawi's struggle against AIDS
AU - Angotti, Nicole
AU - Frye, Margaret
AU - Kaler, Amy
AU - Poulin, Michelle
AU - Watkins, Susan Cotts
AU - Yeatman, Sara
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 The Population Council, Inc.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - The AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa is fertile ground for examining how moral evaluations evolve over time and across different settings. We compare the discourse on AIDS in Malawi as presented in the media with that of everyday conversations. Drawing on two sets of texts, newspaper articles and conversational journals, produced over a ten-year period from 1999 through 2008, we analyze their moral injunctions, or what individuals should or should not do in response to the AIDS epidemic. The predominant injunctions in the early years in both sources were premarital abstinence and marital fidelity. Following the introduction of HIV testing and treatment, however, the discourses diverged. Discourse in the media turned toward moral injunctions requiring individuals to interact with authoritative institutions; thus the conceptual center of gravity of the struggle against AIDS in the media shifted from collectivities of individuals to collectivities of institutions. Rural Malawians, however, received these moral injunctions with great skepticism and continued to advise each other to prevent death by controlling one's sexual appetites.
AB - The AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa is fertile ground for examining how moral evaluations evolve over time and across different settings. We compare the discourse on AIDS in Malawi as presented in the media with that of everyday conversations. Drawing on two sets of texts, newspaper articles and conversational journals, produced over a ten-year period from 1999 through 2008, we analyze their moral injunctions, or what individuals should or should not do in response to the AIDS epidemic. The predominant injunctions in the early years in both sources were premarital abstinence and marital fidelity. Following the introduction of HIV testing and treatment, however, the discourses diverged. Discourse in the media turned toward moral injunctions requiring individuals to interact with authoritative institutions; thus the conceptual center of gravity of the struggle against AIDS in the media shifted from collectivities of individuals to collectivities of institutions. Rural Malawians, however, received these moral injunctions with great skepticism and continued to advise each other to prevent death by controlling one's sexual appetites.
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U2 - 10.1111/j.1728-4457.2014.00693.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1728-4457.2014.00693.x
M3 - Article
C2 - 26877567
AN - SCOPUS:84908345622
VL - 40
SP - 447
EP - 473
JO - Population and Development Review
JF - Population and Development Review
SN - 0098-7921
IS - 3
ER -