Ordinary women and shapes of knowledge

Perspectives on the context of STD and Aids

Bibliographic Data

ID20403151
AuthorsSandra Wallman (Department of Anthropology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT,, corresponding author)
Year1998
Volume7
Issue2
Pages169-185
Publication date1998-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePublic Understanding of Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0963-6625 • E-ISSN: 1361-6609
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/096366259800700205
OpenAlexW2232336352
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited11

In Europe, as well as in Africa, HIV-related studies of women tend to focus on narrowly-defined professional, behavioral, or reproductive categories. The research population for this study of symptom definition and treatment-seeking among women in Kampala, Uganda, was defined only by residence in one low-income “parish” of that city. Its practical justification is the association of STD and HIV: effective treatment of (curable) STD can reduce the risk of HIV infection. STD and AIDS, however prevalent, are never the only things ordinary people have to worry about; their capacity for preventing, managing, or explaining infection is dependent on the range of other things that may be happening in their lives. An analyst-observer's view is by contrast narrower, and the context of scientific understanding is different. This paper sets out an approach that stresses the differences between “real people” knowledge and scientific or professional knowledge about the problem, and between practical and symbolic levels of context. In the light of this approach the seeming chaos of what these women do—or do not do—about getting treatment for STD becomes intelligible. I conclude that the contingency of context and the gap between “real” and “scientific” understanding combine to account for the normal inconsistency of social data, and that the proper use of a context perspective renders these data intelligible

Focus group · Geography · Population · Psychiatry · Residence · Social science · Sociology · Sociology of scientific knowledge · Worry · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health · Computer Science · Demography · HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk · HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions · Psychology · Social Psychology

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