HIV Exceptionalism: Development through Disease in Sierra Leone
By (Author) Adia Benton
University of Minnesota Press
University of Minnesota Press
1st May 2015
United States
Tertiary Education
Non Fiction
Development studies
362.1969792009664
Paperback
200
Width 140mm, Height 216mm, Spine 25mm
In 2002, Sierra Leone emerged from a decadelong civil war. Seeking international attention and development aid, its government faced a dilemma. Though devastated by conflict, Sierra Leone had a low prevalence of HIV. However, like most African countries, it stood to benefit from a large influx of foreign funds specifically targeted at HIV/AIDS prevention and care. In HIV Exceptionalism Adia Benton chronicles how Sierra Leone reoriented itself as a country suffering from HIV at the expense of other, more pressing health concerns.
"A keenly observed case study."Foreign Affairs
"HIV Exceptionalism will be a fine addition to both institutional and personal libraries, offering insights for global health and development scholars, and particularly for HIV/AIDS researchers."African Studies Review
"Through fine-grained accounts describing how individuals navigated new structures, new relationships, and new expectations that came along with being beneficiaries of global HIV funding, Benton reveals that jagged edges and uncomfortable truths about broader global-local health encounters. This book tells a compelling story about an entire society adapting to a sudden infusion of donor money for a disease that, in this particular context, barely existed."Anthropological Quarterly
"Benton recovers numerous silences and opens a conversation foregrounding the unarticulated moral epistemologies people struggle with."Journal of African History
"Benton adeptly dissects the psychological and practical effects of the well-meaning but often overbearing world of development. HIV Exceptionalism is strongly argued and impressively researched."The Lancet
"This book serves as a critical call to those in the public health field to be wary of health programming that so imbalances comprehensive healthcare services in an effort to target a health problem that is perceived as exceptional, emergent and urgent."Medical Anthropology Quarterly
Adia Benton is assistant professor of anthropology at Brown University.