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Abstract
This article argues that an effective AIDS response must expand the biomedical and individual behaviour frames to include structural interventions that create circumstances that enable behavioural change and strengthen communities’ own efforts to address prevention and treatment. How can the emergence of AIDS-resilient communities be supported? The article underscores the importance of cultural and sociological variables in shaping effective responses to HIV and AIDS; social, political and environmental circumstances can facilitate or impede behavioural choices and can strengthen or remove barriers to HIV-resilient actions. A ‘social capital lens’ brings into sharp relief how culture, context, power relations, the distribution of social and natural resources, vulnerability and marginalisation all play a role in shaping options, behaviour and practices. Using this lens will give us a better understanding of the complex networks of factors influencing human behaviours and social practices and allows us to better support the emergence of AIDS-resilient communities and health-enabling environments.
Acknowledgements
This article is an outgrowth of two workshops sponsored by aids2031 in 2009 and 2010 to examine social capital in relation to HIV and AIDS. We thank the participants in these workshops for their thoughtful contributions. They include Olagoke Akintola, Constance Rose Ambasa-Shisanya, Judith Auerbach, Dave Bell, Kim Blankenship, Carlos Caceres, Catherine Campbell, Brandon Cohen, Flora Cornish, Usa Duongsaa, Ellen Foley, Robert Goble, Eduard Grebe, Geeta Rao Gupta, Mike Isbell, Roberts Kabeba Muriisa, Kevin Kelly, Daniel Kim, Mandisa Mbali, Sudirman Nasir, Cheikh Niang, Willis Odek, Jeffrey O'Malley, Paul Pronyk, Rachel Robinson, Fiona Samuels, Abhay Shukla, Morten Skovdal, Lucy Stackpool-Moore and Michael Woolcock. We also appreciate the insights and editorial comments on this article offered by Jessica Ogden, Robert Goble and the two reviewers selected by Global Public Health. Allison Kaminaga, Brandon Cohen, Nimesh Dhungana and Cassie DeFillipo have provided invaluable logistical, research and editorial support in various capacities over the past two years. We appreciate the contributions of all.
The aids2031 project, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Clark University, sponsored two workshops on HIV/AIDS and social capital attended by researchers and practitioners from around the world. The first workshop, held in March 2009 in Salzburg, Austria, was entitled Mobilizing social capital in a world with AIDS. The second, held in Salzburg in May 2010, was convened to explore additional opportunities for addressing this topic. Only papers from the first workshop are cited in this article. The papers, along with information about the agenda for the 2009 workshop, the participants and the panel discussions, are available on the following website: http://www.socialcapital.weebly.com. Additional information about aids2031, as well as numerous resources developed through the nine institutions that participated in the consortium, can be found at: http://www.aids2031.org.
