Growing up in an Era of AIDS

Coordinator: Catrine Christiansen , Nordic Researcher, Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala , Sweden .

In certain parts of the world children’s and young people’s lives are increasingly affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Caring for sick parents, almost certainly watch them pass away, may change the personal life of a young person as well as impact on the family’s living conditions. While children and young people may experience the consequences of AIDS in the familial rather than public spheres, radical demographic alterations reveal human tragedies on the broader societal level. In high-prevalence societies how do children and young people grow up?

These sessions will deal with issues related to growing up in an era of HIV/AIDS. However, at the same time as HIV/AIDS causes notable changes it is crucial to contextualise the epidemic with concurrent social processes transforming societies such as economic decline, social uncertainty, urbanization, and political turbulence.

Four sub-themes are:
1) The everydayness of HIV/AIDS: Coping strategies, social networks and marginalisation
2) Youthful Sexuality: emotions, negotiations, and economics
3) Being HIV+: Children’s and young people’s access to VCT, care, and ARV-medicine
4) Who are the ‘Orphans and other Vulnerable Children’?: Conceptual and practical implications

Catrine Christiansen, Nordic Africa Institute and Aidsnet-the Danish NGO network on Aids and Development organize the sessions under this topic. Professor Tony Barnet, London School of Economic, United Kingdom, will present a keynote session and act as discussant in another session. Bawa Yamba, Diakonhjemmet, Norway, will present findings from his recent research in Southern Africa and also perform as discussant.

The organizer invites individual paper submissions for presentation in workshops and panels or as posters.

Call for papers