Abstract
BackgroundWhile there has recently been significant medical advance in understanding and treating HIV, limitations in understanding the complex social dimensions of HIV/AIDS epidemics continue to restrict a host of prevention and development efforts from community through to international levels. These gaps are rooted as much in limited conceptual development as they are in a lack of empirical research.MethodsIn this conceptual article, the authors compare and contrast the evolution of climate change and AIDS research. They demonstrate how scholarship and response in these two seemingly disparate areas share certain important similarities, such as the "globalization" of discourses and associated masking of uneven vulnerabilities, the tendency toward techno-fixes, and the polarization of debates within these fields. They also examine key divergences, noting in particular that climate change research has tended to be more forward-looking and longer-term in focus than AIDS scholarship.ConclusionSuggesting that AIDS scholars can learn from these key parallels and divergences, the paper offers four directions for advancing AIDS research: (1) focusing more on the differentiation of risk and responsibility within and among AIDS epidemics; (2) taking (back) on board social justice approaches; (3) moving beyond polarized debates; and (4) shifting focus from reactive to forward-looking and proactive approaches.
Highlights
While there has recently been significant medical advance in understanding and treating human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), limitations in understanding the complex social dimensions of HIV/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemics continue to restrict a host of prevention and development efforts from community through to international levels
Summary and Ways Forward: Parallels, Divergences and Directions The above discussion reveals a number of the parallels and divergences in how researchers and practitioners have responded to and conceptualized HIV/AIDS and climate change
Theme 3: Leaning toward technical interventions Much of the social science-based research has focused on either reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions or sequestering atmospheric carbon in order to reduce the magnitude of future climate changes
Summary
While there has recently been significant medical advance in understanding and treating HIV, limitations in understanding the complex social dimensions of HIV/AIDS epidemics continue to restrict a host of prevention and development efforts from community through to international levels. In the 27 years since the first cases of AIDS were recorded, HIV/AIDS has become one of most highly studied diseases in history. Albeit unevenly, and impacts are escalating, reaching beyond individuals and families to pose major challenges to development broadly. This is most obvious in southern Africa, where antenatal prevalence levels in some countries are over 30 percent. While there has been significant medical advance in understanding and treating HIV, the complex and place-specific social, economic, cultural, behavioural and psychological dimensions remain a puzzle
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