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Popular Moralities and Institutional Rationalities in Malawi's Struggle Against AIDS

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  • Nicole Angotti
  • Margaret Frye
  • Amy Kaler
  • Michelle Poulin
  • Susan Cotts Watkins
  • Sara Yeatman

Abstract

type="main"> 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.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicole Angotti & Margaret Frye & Amy Kaler & Michelle Poulin & Susan Cotts Watkins & Sara Yeatman, 2014. "Popular Moralities and Institutional Rationalities in Malawi's Struggle Against AIDS," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 40(3), pages 447-473, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:popdev:v:40:y:2014:i:3:p:447-473
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2014.00693.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Nicole Angotti & Amy Kaler, 2013. "The more you learn the less you know? Interpretive ambiguity across three modes of qualitative data," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 28(33), pages 951-980.
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    5. Morfit, N. Simon, 2011. ""AIDS is Money": How Donor Preferences Reconfigure Local Realities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 64-76, January.
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    8. Michelle Poulin & Adamson S. Muula, 2011. "An inquiry into the uneven distribution of women’s HIV infection in rural Malawi," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 25(28), pages 869-902.
    9. Susan Cotts Watkins, 2004. "Navigating the AIDS Epidemic in Rural Malawi," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 30(4), pages 673-705, December.
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    2. Asad, Asad L. & Kay, Tamara, 2015. "Toward a multidimensional understanding of culture for health interventions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 79-87.

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