Community vulnerability and stratified risk: Hegemonic masculinity, socioeconomic status, and HIV/AIDS in a sex work community in Kampala, Uganda

ABSTRACT

This article examines the social patterning of health, economic uncertainty, hegemonic masculinity, and vulnerability among men who live and work in a low-income sex work community in Kampala, Uganda. This problematises the notion that vulnerable communities are homogenous, in demographics, economic status, and risk. This article draws on ethnographic data collected in 2016, including semi-structured interviews and participant observation. This article uses a stratified risk framework to describe the central finding of this study, which is that men’s experience in Kataba is characterised by a struggle to fulfil the provider role that constitutes a core aspect of their socially ascribed gender role. In a context of economic scarcity, men’s lives are fraught with strain and this intersects with other forms of risk. Finally, by focusing on community vulnerability rather than individual risk, this work contributes to theories of gender and sex work, and informs HIV/AIDS praxis.

KEYWORDS:

• Risk
• vulnerability
• masculinity
• HIV/AIDS
• Uganda

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr Janet W. McGrath, Dr David Kaawa-Mafigiri, and Dr Jill E. Korbin for their input, guidance, and careful review of this research and this manuscript. I would also like to thank Melissa Attias and Heather Baily for their review of this manuscript. Finally, I would like to thank the men and women in Kataba for generously sharing their time and lives with me.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Megan M. Schmidt-Sane http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3669-7527