IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/devchg/v47y2016i4p615-639.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Forum 2016

Author

Listed:
  • Bridget O'Laughlin
  • Beniamin Knutsson

Abstract

type="main"> While access to antiretroviral therapy has improved worldwide, many people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) still suffer from economic hardship. Socio-economic impact mitigation is therefore becoming an increasingly important component of the global HIV/AIDS response. The content of such strategies, however, is dependent on the political rationalities underpinning them. Drawing on fieldwork in Rwanda, this article explores programmatic efforts by the Rwandan government and its international partners to govern the economic life of PLHIV. These interventions are conceptualized as a form of biopolitics and the article analyses the neoliberal modalities of government through which it operates. At the centre of the strategy is a pretension to transform PLHIV from economically unproductive life, sustained by medical means, into a resilient and enterprising population willing to accept responsibility for their own livelihoods. However, according to the strategy, the only way for PLHIV to lead responsible economic lives is by daring to become entrepreneurial and enrolling in microcredit schemes. Thus the dubious message conveyed is that responsible conduct is tantamount to exposing oneself to risk. The article also discusses the complex coexistence of this neoliberal biopolitics and the Rwandan government's known efforts to exercise sovereign control.

Suggested Citation

  • Bridget O'Laughlin & Beniamin Knutsson, 2016. "Forum 2016," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 47(4), pages 615-639, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:47:y:2016:i:4:p:615-639
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/dech.12227
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anke F. Schwittay, 2014. "Making Poverty Into A Financial Problem: From Global Poverty Lines To Kiva.Org," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 508-519, May.
    2. Lisa Ann Richey, 2012. "Counselling Citizens and Producing Patronage: AIDS Treatment in South African and Ugandan Clinics," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 43(4), pages 823-845, July.
    3. Kees Biekart & Rob Aitken, 2013. "The Financialization of Micro-Credit," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 44(3), pages 473-499, May.
    4. Gerhard Anders & Olaf Zenker & Simon Turner, 2014. "Making Good Citizens from Bad Life in Post-Genocide Rwanda," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 45(3), pages 415-433, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Duc Huynh, Toan Luu & Burggraf, Tobias & Nasir, Muhammad Ali, 2020. "Financialisation of natural resources & instability caused by risk transfer in commodity markets," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    2. Isabelle Guérin & Bert D'Espallier & G. Venkatasubramanian, 2015. "The Social Regulation of Markets: Why Microcredit Fails to Promote Jobs in Rural South India," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 46(6), pages 1277-1301, November.
    3. Meagher, Kate, 2015. "Leaving no-one behind? Informal economies, economic inclusion, and Islamic extremism in Nigeria," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 62140, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Lucy Baker, 2021. "Everyday experiences of digital financial inclusion in India's ‘micro-entrepreneur’ paratransit services," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(7), pages 1810-1827, October.
    5. Salvador Cruz Rambaud & Joaquín López Pascual & Emilio M. Santandreu, 2023. "A socioeconomic approach to the profile of microcredit holders from the Hispanic minority in the USA," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 1-25, December.
    6. Murat Arsel & Kalpana Wilson, 2015. "Forum 2015," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 46(4), pages 803-832, July.
    7. Radhakrishnan, Smitha, 2015. "“Low Profile” or Entrepreneurial? Gender, Class, and Cultural Adaptation in the Global Microfinance Industry," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 264-274.
    8. Dorfleitner, Gregor & Oswald, Eva-Maria, 2016. "Repayment behavior in peer-to-peer microfinancing: Empirical evidence from Kiva," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 45-59.
    9. Kevin Deane & Sara Stevano & Deborah Johnston, 2019. "Employers’ responses to the HIV epidemic in sub‐Saharan Africa: Revisiting the evidence," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 37(2), pages 245-259, March.
    10. Nanneke Winters, 2017. "Embedding Remittances: A Methodological Note on Financial Diaries in Nicaragua," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 108(2), pages 175-189, April.
    11. Salvador Cruz Rambaud & Joaquín López Pascual & Roberto Moro-Visconti & Emilio M. Santandreu, 2022. "Should gender be a determinant factor for granting crowdfunded microloans?," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-13, December.
    12. Costas Lapavitsas & Aylin Soydan, 2020. "Financialisation in developing countries: Approaches, concepts, and metrics," Working Papers 240, Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK.
    13. Thereza Balliester Reis, 2021. "What is financial inclusion? A critical review," Working Papers 246, Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK.
    14. Lena Lavinas, 2018. "The Collateralization of Social Policy under Financialized Capitalism," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 49(2), pages 502-517, March.
    15. Jorge Garcia-Arias & Alan Cibils & Agostina Costantino & Vitor B. Fernandes & Eduardo Fernández-Huerga, 2021. "When Land Meets Finance in Latin America: Some Intersections between Financialization and Land Grabbing in Argentina and Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-37, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:47:y:2016:i:4:p:615-639. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0012-155X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.