Ordinary Women and Shapes of Knowledge: Perspectives on The Context of STD and AIDS  

Oleh:

Wallman, Sandra

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Public Understanding of Science vol. 7 no. 2 (Apr. 1998), page 169-185.
Fulltext: 169PUS72.pdf (109.64KB)

Isi artikel

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.

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