Project

The Continued Importance of Social Citizenship in Realizing Health for All

Program

African Humanities Program Postdoctoral Fellowships

Department

Department of Political Studies

Abstract

This project examines the contradictions inherent in using for-profit markets to realise a specific dimension of social citizenship: the right to health. I examine ethical and political ideas about the role of markets in realising health for all, and more broadly, advancing social citizenship, that emerged from efforts to ensure the right to HIV/AIDS treatment in the Global South. What is the historical trajectory of these ideas? How did the HIV/AIDS epidemic crystalise these ideas and aim to resolve the contradictions between them? Finally, how are these ideas now playing out in global and national governance reforms aimed at realising UHC, particularly in the Global South. I use the case study of South African citizens' struggles for HIV/AIDS and its legacies to explore these questions. Ultimately this project aims to map the assumptions about power, solidarity, and citizenship that define contemporary governance initiatives aimed at ensuring the right to health.