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Title Experts or activists? AIDS specialists as "institutional activists" in the AIDS care policy making in Benin
Full text http://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00907356
Date 2013
Author(s) Bonvalet, Perrine
Abstract Doctors specialized in AIDS care play a central role in AIDS care policy making in Benin. Not only are they mobilized as experts in therapeutic protocol and policy building but they also occupy most of the key positions in AIDS institutions in the country. Going further than previous works on the central role of bio-medical oligarchies in AIDS policy-making in Africa, this contribution would like to analyze the activist stand that they defend from within institutions they work for. Involved in a transnational professional network diffusing a particular view of the AIDS epidemic at the national level, they advocate for better care through access to technologies available in Western countries. Their "neutral" position as recognized experts provides them with a unique opportunity to push for solutions that are technical in appearance and activist by nature. They thus contribute to maintaining the "exceptionalist" building of the AIDS field and its stand within the health sector in Benin. This paper therefore aims at analyzing the diffusion mechanisms of this construction of AIDS care among AIDS specialists in Benin and how these AIDS experts develop this "institutional activism".
Subject(s) [SHS:SCIPO] Humanities and Social Sciences/Political science; [SHS:SCIPO] Sciences de l'Homme et Société/Science politique; [SHS:SOCIO] Humanities and Social Sciences/Sociology; [SHS:SOCIO] Sciences de l'Homme et Société/Sociologie; AIDS; Health policy; Public policy; Experts; Development; International aid; Benin; Africa
Coverage Lisbonne; Portugal
Language ENG
Type of publication conference, seminar, workshop communication
Source African dynamics in a multipolar World AEGIS-ECAS 2013, 5th European Conference on African Studies
Repository France - Hyper Article en Ligne (HAL), SHS
Added to C-A: 2014-10-07;12:49:38