Open Access‘MSM-ing’ as a networking concept
Author(s) -
Paul Boyce,
Fabian Cataldo
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
medicine anthropology theory
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2405-691X
DOI - 10.17157/mat.6.4.707
Subject(s) - plural , ethnography , men who have sex with men , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , human sexuality , sociology , term (time) , gender studies , political science , public relations , medicine , virology , anthropology , linguistics , philosophy , physics , syphilis , quantum mechanics
This article explores the creation of ‘MSM’ as global health category over the course of the HIV and AIDS epidemic, and across country contexts from India to southern and eastern Africa. We conceive of ‘MSM’ as a mode of ‘doing’ and ‘becoming’: ‘MSM-ing’, so to speak. Actor-network perspectives and ethnographic reflections are engaged to elucidate ‘MSM’ as a term that both enables and inhibits communications about sexualities and risks. We consider the term as a plural form of evidencing that offers wider perspectives on flows and boundaries in global health–knowledge making and HIV prevention.