Following the detection of the first HIV infections in the early 1980s,
by the 1990s Thailand was routinely depicted as having the world's
fastest moving HIV/AIDS epidemic. However, by the early 2000's the bulk
of scholarly and medical AIDS literature portrayed the epidemic as being
largely under control, and claimed that Thai AIDS prevention efforts
during the 1990s had been successful. Based on long-term ethnographic
research conducted in Northern Thailand this book makes an in-depth
study of the social construction of Thailand's HIV/AIDS epidemic over
this period. In addition to his own field research the author draws on
an extensive corpus of English and Thai language social science and
medical HIV/AIDS literature to examine the modeling of Thailand's AIDS
epidemic, and addresses concepts and issues such as risk groups, risk
behaviour, alcohol use, gender and class, masculinity, the scapegoating
of female prostitutes and men in the underclass, the reporting of the
HIV/AIDS epidemic in Thailand's indigenous Thai language media, and
sexual activity amongst Thai youth. The analysis demonstrates the
contribution of anthropology as an interpretative social science, and
the use of anthropological theory and research methods, to finding
alternative ways of framing the problems of Thai AIDS and of posing new
questions that will lead to more effective points of intervention. It
emphasises the necessity for critically reflexive approaches that
question the 'taken for granted' and demonstrates how qualitative
research techniques guided by social theory have the potential to take
account of local meanings in complex social contexts where traditional
values and cultural practices are rapidly transforming due to economic
and social change. The book offers a sustained and powerful criticism of
the limitations of the normative model of the Thai AIDS epidemic and, in
its aim of promoting critically reflexive AIDS research techniques in
order to produce a better understanding of issues 'on the ground' and
hence better health policy and more effective AIDS interventions, speaks
not only to the Thai AIDS epidemic but to AIDS epidemics throughout
Southeast Asia and elsewhere.
This is the only English language study of Thailand's HIV/AIDS epidemic
to draw on long-term qualitative research in Northern Thailand as well
as on a broad range of Thai (and some Khmer language) materials. Its
contextualised and subtly nuanced analysis of the AIDS epidemic and of
the impact of AIDS control initiatives, in concert with the theoretical
and methodological contributions it makes to AIDS research and policy
and behavioural interventions, makes it a timely publication of vital
interest to scholars in the social sciences, as well as to the members
of non-governmental organisations and international organisations
working in the HIV/AIDS, health and development fields.
