Contenu du sommaire : Sida : nouvelles perspectives en anthropologie et en sociologie ?

Africa and AIDS: questions for anthropology, anthropology called into question In order to provide a better understanding of the spread of the AIDS epidemic in Africa and to be in a position to respond to it more effectively, the last ten years have seen a considerable upsurge in demand for information which could be said to fall under the heading of the social sciences. Before social scientists had even begun to focus on the illness and the epidemic as potential subjects for research, the medical disciplines and those in the public health sector were the first to set out guidelines to define the framework for research into the non medical dimensions of the illness. In particular, they raised questions about the very specific « African problem », the uneven geographical and social distribution of risk factors, the cultural obstacles that have hindered prevention. Often, their hypothesis were based on presuppositions regarding the social environment which had been formulated with no reference whatsoever to social scientists. Despite the apparent demand for anthropological « knowledge » in order to respond positively to concrete requirements, there has been only limited interdisciplinary dialogue on the ground in Africa. In France, at least, as anthropologists have become aware of AIDS, they have gradually formulated their own set of questions on the subject, thus creating a topic which is relevant to their field of research. If a challenge has indeed been levelled at anthropologists, then it has been above ail due to the way AIDS has been developed by them as a scientific subject, with ail the theoretical, methodological and ethical problems that this process entails. This article outlines some trains of thought which have developed around a central question, which is this: might the fact that anthropology is becoming interested in AIDS cause it to shift on some of its basic theories and methodologies - around contradictions or «fault llnes» that are already inhérent in the discipline? Although this is as yet an entirely provisional approach, three points can be raised around this question: the uses of the notion of culture, the place of the individual subject in anthropological analysis, the conditions for applying participant observation procedures. In these three areas, we shall see that in the study of AIDS, researchers are confronted with ail the old ambiguities of the discipline, with unresolved paradoxes, and they are thus being guided towards adjustments and fine tuning which must ultimately be a source of renewal.

Models for the analysis of HIV-risk management: links between knowledge and action The data of a research on perception and management of AIDS risk are confronted with a series of data stemming from social sciences research on communication, interpretation and link between action and knowledge. Informations are actively processed by their receivers: they are linked, integrated into theories organized on the basis of causal relations and inferences, without the emotional dimension being absent. A part of knowledge is mobilized to elaborate a risk perception related to experiences, personal or social situations and to forms of corporal or social vulnerability. Classical linear models describe a rational articulation between knowledge and actions, shedding thus only a partial light on the determinants of action. The elaboration of a model, of which the components are in interaction, has been necessary to sort out a complex whole of conducts. It allows to draw exemplary configurations and to base them on registers of risk perception linked to individual or social forms of vulnerability, to feeling of control, as the actions have at their turn an impact on risk perception with regard to the sensé of security they bring.

A subject for the sociology of chronic illness: the HIV-positive situation? In the carly eighties, the sudden outbreak of a new viral illness challenged the medical sciences, which did not have sufficient knowledge to propose a cure. Owing to its charactenstics, this stigmatized illness created a special social context. Associated with the return of epidemics and the fear of contagion, AIDS was not an individual but a collective experience. Hercin, the everyday lives of the HIV-positive and the problems they have to face are described. The sociology of chronic illness provides an approach for enquiring into various aspects of their lives, in particular: the keeping of the secret of infection as a way of managing a stigmatized illness ; the reorganization of everyday life in a context of uncertainty; and the relations between individual biographies and collective history.

A subject for the sociology of chronic illness: the HIV-positive situation? In the carly eighties, the sudden outbreak of a new viral illness challenged the medical sciences, which did not have sufficient knowledge to propose a cure. Owing to its charactenstics, this stigmatized illness created a special social context. Associated with the return of epidemics and the fear of contagion, AIDS was not an individual but a collective experience. Hercin, the everyday lives of the HIV-positive and the problems they have to face are described. The sociology of chronic illness provides an approach for enquiring into various aspects of their lives, in particular: the keeping of the secret of infection as a way of managing a stigmatized illness ; the reorganization of everyday life in a context of uncertainty; and the relations between individual biographies and collective history.