Suchergebnisse

The subversive role of ethnic minorities (EMs) in the Nicaraguan revolution (1981-1985) is discussed, especially regarding the adverse consequences of US intervention. A brief history, from the 1600s through the twentieth century, traces the source of conflicts between EMs to the military power of the nationalistic Miskitu group. During the recent revolution, the Sandinistas encountered heavy opposition on the Atlantic coast, where the EMs are predominant. Accusations of human rights violations (which destroyed the revolution's international image) & the inability to incorporate EMs into the revolutionary process have helped prevent the Sandinistas from achieving full participation. Realization of their cultural insensitivity came too late for Sandinista leaders who, in the midst of war, were forced to maintain a military defense. US aid to the EM, in an attempt to subvert the revolution, has simply prolonged the state of war. D. Graves.

The transmission of HIV is shaped by individual-environment inter-actions. Social epidemiologic approaches thus seek to capture the dynamic and reciprocal relationships of individual-environment interactions in the production and reduction of risk. This presents considerable methodological, theoretical and disciplinary challenges. Drawing upon four research case studies, we consider how methods and concepts in the social and epidemiologic sciences might be brought together towards understanding HIV risk as an effect of social, cultural and political condition. The case studies draw upon different combinations of methods (qualitative, ethnographic and quantitative) and disciplines (sociology, anthropology and epidemiology) in different social contexts of HIV vulnerability (street settings in Russia, Serbia and North America and a cross-border setting in Mexico) among a range of marginalised high-risk populations (injection drug users and female and transvestite sex workers). These case studies illustrate the relevance of the social science concepts of structural violence and structural vulnerability for a social epidemiology of HIV risk. They also explore how social epidemiologic work can benefit from the mixing of social science methods and theories. We contend that social epidemiology cannot advance in its understanding of structural vulnerability without embracing and relying upon ethnographic and qualitative approaches. We put -forward the linked concepts of structural violence, structural vulnerability and risk environment as building blocks for a theory-informed social epidemiology of HIV risk among marginalised populations.