Governmentalities and Moral Agents in the Local/Global Nexus: Male Premarital Sexuality in Dakar, Senegal

Abstract

This article departs from the notion of governmentalities to analyse the linkage between gender and globalization. It focuses in particular on the way this linkage is informed by specific mindsets that govern peoples conduct as part of the process of self-government. By critically exploring how gender constructions are represented in literature within the field of gender and development, we propose a distinct approach. It entails a multidimensional analytical methodology to study the global/local nexus as a disciplining process, and which deconstructs local/global, west/rest, and modern/traditional dichotomies. This approach is applied to the narrated experiences of a 20-year-old Dakarois boy, in order to illustrate the intersectionality of masculinity and sexuality in, local as well as global, contradicting discourses and policy approaches on ‘African sexuality’ and the HIV/AIDS crises.

Este artículo se desvía de la noción de la gubernamentalidad para analizar la conexión entre el género y la globalización. Se enfoca particularmente sobre la forma como esta unión está informada por mentalidades específicas, que gobiernan las conductas de la gente como parte del proceso de autogobierno. Nosotros proponemos un enfoque distinto, mediante una exploración crítica sobre la manera como se representa la construcción de identidades de género en la literatura, dentro del campo del género y desarrollo. Esto conlleva una metodología analítica multidimensional para estudiar el nexo global/local, como un proceso disciplinario, la cual deconstruye las dicotomías locales/globales, occidentales/y del resto y modernas/tradicionales. Este enfoque se aplica a las experiencias narradas por un muchacho de 20 años llamado Dakarois, para ilustrar la interseccionalidad de la masculinidad y sexualidad tanto local como global, contradiciendo los enfoques de los discursos y políticas sobre la ‘Sexualidad africana’ y la crisis del VIH/SIDA.

本文从治理的概念出发分析性别与全球化之间的联系。它特别关注的是，这种联系是怎样通过支配着作为自治过程一部分的人们行为的特定心态而体现的。通过对性别结构在发展和性别等领域的文献中如何表现出来进行批判探究，我们提出一条不同的路径。这将需要用一种多维度的分析方法来研究作为一种训练过程的地方/全球联系，它解构了地方/全球、西方/非西方、现代/传统等两分法。这一方法运用于一位20岁达卡男青年讲述其经历，以便说明在“非洲式性观念”和艾滋病危机问题上相互抵触的话语和政策路径中（无论地方还是全球）男性主义和性别的交汇。

Keywords:

• governmentality
• sexuality
• governance
• HIV/AIDS
• Senegal

Notes

This in contrast to the national management approach: i.e. the logic of global capital reserves some power for the nation state, including national resistance to the ravages of globalization (Bergeron, 2001, p. 984). Still globalization is considered destructive in this approach.

The same rhetoric can be found in several contemporary advocacy campaigns suggesting to invest in girls as a poverty reduction strategy. See, for example, the girl effect at http://www.girleffect.org, in which an investment in a girl is portrayed as a way to solve a variety of development problems and ‘change the course of history’.

Fieldwork was conducted in Senegal's capital Dakar in 2000 and 2001, with a short follow-up in 2004. Individual interviews and focus group discussions with unmarried youth in the age range of 16 to 23 (both in and out-of-school), was accompanied with participant observation. Malick is one of the 23 male participants in the group discussions, and one of the 12 boys whose sexual history was reconstructed in individual interviews and informal conversations (van Eerdewijk, 2007).

HIV-2 is ‘a form of the virus that is less aggressive, has a longer life cycle and therefore does not kill so rapidly’ (Barnett and Whiteside, 2002, p. 125). The explanatory power of HIV-2 is however also questioned by other authors (Meda et al., 1999, pp. 1402–1403). See Ferry (1995) on the link with alcohol consumption; see Jungar and Oinas (2004) for a critical discussion of the role of male circumcision.