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'When the skies fight': HIV, violence and pathways of precarity in South Africa
Based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in South Africa, this article explores the skies that fight, the proverbial lightning strikes that bring HIV into women's lives and bodies. Departing from earlier studies on ARV programmes in and beyond South Africa, and broadening out to explore the chronic struggle for life in a context of entrenched socio-economic inequality, this article presents findings on women's embodiment of and strategic resistance to structural and interpersonal violence. These linked forms of violence are discussed in light of the concept of precarity. Across two sections, the findings trace the pathways through which precarity entered women's lives, drawing on verbal, visual and written accounts collected through participant observation, participatory photography and film, and journey mapping. In doing so, the ethnography articulates the intersection of structural and interpersonal violence in women's lives. It also reveals the extent to which women exert a 'constrained agency', on the one hand, to resist structural violence and reconfigure their political relationship with the state through health activism; and, on the other hand, to shift the gender dynamics that fuel interpersonal violence through a careful navigation of intimacy and independence.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
Reproductive Health MattersISSN
0968-8080Publisher
ElsevierExternal DOI
Issue
47Volume
24Page range
85-95Department affiliated with
- Anthropology Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2016-11-28First Open Access (FOA) Date
2018-01-18First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2016-11-28Usage metrics
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