Doctoral Dissertation Research: Institutionalizing AIDS Orphan Policy in South Africa

SES-0728096 Charles BoskCatherine va de Ruit Mayer宾夕法尼亚大学这项研究是关于负责制定和实施艾滋病孤儿政策的国际和国家官僚机构与负责照顾艾滋病孤儿的当地行为者对艾滋病孤儿的看法之间的不一致性。国际人道主义研究和政策将艾滋病孤儿定义为核心家庭，即至少失去父母一方的儿童。相比之下，提供照料的亲属拒绝接受孤儿的官方定义，因为这与他们的亲属制度不一致，在亲属制度中，孤儿被吸收到更广泛的家庭网络中。这项研究旨在审查官方分类制度对日常社会实践的影响。 本论文提出四个研究目的：1）分析孤儿的官方分类制度化的过程; 2）了解法律的孤儿类别如何在种族隔离制度下受到种族和性别假设的影响，继续影响后种族隔离时代关于孤儿的政策辩论;（3）研究亲属和其他照顾孤儿的当地团体如何谈判、竞争和/或默许国家和国际政策规定;（4）审查政策行为者能够将当地做法纳入孤儿政策的机制。 本研究采用多点、混合方法研究设计。定性访谈政策制定者和执行者，在两个地方设置在夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省的民族志观察，政策文件的内容分析，以及种族隔离政策的历史研究，将形成本研究的证据基础。这个项目是2004年在夸祖鲁-纳塔尔进行的初步定性研究的结果，研究人员在那里观察到孤儿照顾者对“孤儿”一词感到非常不舒服。“这一观察结果提出了关于当地行为者谈判孤儿政策的方式的问题。2006年10月在南非进行了一项试点研究，研究了关于孤儿政策的国家政策辩论。试点提供了令人信服的证据，需要进行实证研究的辩论对象，亲属照顾孤儿在当地社区，并了解这些辩论是如何在实践中解决。艾滋病危机正在造成一个大规模的孤儿问题，目前正在向这个问题投入大量资源。在这个高优先级、高风险的政策环境中，研究将通过检查当地实践和孤儿政策的意外后果（对于缺乏与当地环境密切联系的规划者来说可能并不明显），为制定有效的政策做出贡献。研究人员将制定一个社会政策教学课程，促使学生考虑旨在支持弱势群体的官方分类实际上可能通过在个人和群体之间制造区别而重现不平等。

SES-0728096Charles BoskCatherine va de Ruit MayerUniversity of Pennsylvania This research is on the discordance between perceptions of AIDS orphans held by international and national bureaucracies charged with developing and implementing AIDS-orphan policies and the local actors responsible for caring for AIDS-orphans. International humanitarian research and policy define an AIDS orphan in terms of the nuclear family, as a child who has lost at least one parent. In contrast, kin who are providing care reject the official definition of orphan because it is inconsistent with their kinship systems, where orphans are absorbed into the wider familial network. The study seeks to examine the repercussions of official classification systems on everyday social practices. This dissertation advances four research aims : 1) To analyze the processes by which official classification of the category orphan has been institutionalized into policy; 2) Understand how the legal category of "orphan," influenced by racial and gendered assumptions of the family under apartheid, continue to shape policy debates over orphans in the post apartheid era; 3) Study how kin and other local groups caring for orphans negotiate, contest and/or acquiesce to national and international policy prescriptions; 4) Examine the mechanisms by which policy actors are able to incorporate local practices into orphan policy. The study employs a multi-sited, mixed method research design. Qualitative interviews with policy-makers and implementers, ethnographic observation in two local settings in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, content analysis of policy documents, and historical research of the orphan policy under apartheid, will form the evidentiary basis of this study. This project is informed by preliminary qualitative research in 2004, based in KwaZulu-Natal, where the researcher observed a great deal of discomfort on the part of orphan caregivers to the term "orphan." This observation raised questions about the ways that local actors negotiate orphan policy. A pilot study was conducted in South Africa in October 2006, where national policy debates on orphan policy were studied. The pilot provided convincing evidence of the need to conduct empirical research of the objects of debate, kin caring for orphans in local communities, and to learn how these debates are resolved in practice. Broader impact The AIDS crisis is creating a massive orphan problem to which extensive resources are being directed. In this high-priority, high-stakes policy environment the research will contribute to building effective policy by examining local practices and the unintended consequences of orphan policy that may not be obvious to planners lacking a close connection to local contexts. The researcher will develop a social policy-teaching curriculum that will challenge students to consider the ways in which official classifications, designed to support disadvantaged groups, may in fact reproduce inequality by creating distinctions between individuals and groups.