HIV Scale-up and the Politics of Global Health

The global expansion of HIV programming (HIV "scale-up") and the growth of global health in the past decade reshaped politics, power, civic relations, and citizen subjectivities in countries across the globe. This book draws on interdisciplinary research from numerous sites in the Global South to examine the political dimensions of HIV and global health programming. The chapters reflect extensive methodological diversity and geographic range, yet exhibit striking resonance with the book’s core themes. Collectively, the authors paint a complex global portrait of a unique period in the social history of HIV, as the pandemic enters its fourth decade, and the global response reaches its peak. The book contemplates "scale-up" (and, subsequently, "scale-down") as an object of analysis and an historical shift in the politics of response to global crisis. Ultimately, HIV/AIDS campaigns provide a template for the broader expansion of global health projects and institutions. These transnational shifts and expansions necessitate further critical evaluations across social science and public health disciplines. By collecting diverse perspectives on the political legacies of HIV and global health, this book provides a unique history of the present, cataloguing emerging practices and policies that will have long-term social impacts.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Global Public Health.

Dr. Nora Kenworthy is an interdisciplinary researcher in public health, political science, and anthropology. Her work focuses on intersecting social and political factors in global health. She is currently Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing and Health Studies at the University of Washington Bothell, USA.

Dr. Richard Parker is a pioneer scholar of structural and political-economic factors shaping HIV/AIDS globally and the politics of HIV and global health policy. He is currently Professor of Sociomedical Sciences and Anthropology and Director of the Center for the Study of Culture, Politics and Health at Columbia University, USA.