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This paper reports findings of a qualitative study and draws on the political ecology of health framework to examine the links between housing and health among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWAs) in Northern Malawi in a wider context in which the epidemic has overburdened the country's hospitals, thereby transferring the responsibility for care from government to families. The findings suggest that poor housing conditions, rooted in colonial and postcolonial policy failure, may undermine the amount, as well as the quality, of palliative care available to PLWAs. It was also found that the high cost of renting, discrimination, and poor landlord-tenant relationships imposed significant financial and emotional burden on PLWAs, thereby undermining their ability to meet dietary needs, stay healthy, and adhere to treatment. Furthermore, customary norms around property inheritance hampered women's housing security and their ability to cope with the disease. The paper concludes by making relevant policy recommendations.

This study examines socioeconomic factors that influence child marriage and gender relations in the post-independence South Sudan. Grounded Theory (GT) methodology is utilized to discuss how sociocultural construction of gender relationships and socialization can influence gender relations and equitable female and male contribution to the society. The sample consisted of 55 females and 36 males chosen at random ( n = 91), who took part either in a focus group discussion or one-on-one interview. The study covered the period from August 2015 to October 2017. The participants were drawn from four counties—Mapel, Kabu, Besselia, and Jury River—of the Wau State, in Bahr el Ghazal. Findings yielded by the GT analysis revealed that child marriage is influenced by social and economic factors and is perceived as an acceptable social norm. This practice is further complicated by the effects of everlasting conflict, poverty, and high illiteracy rate in the society.

This article explores the complexity of the spatial construction of ethnicity, identity, and sociopolitical interaction among South Sudanese ethnic groups. The article focuses on the interplay between social interaction and the construction of ethnic identity as they affect the notion of human interaction and welfare. The narratives are based on the political sociology of South Sudan after its independence from Sudan and challenges endured in the process of sociopolitical transformation towards the reconstruction of national identity and peaceful coexistence. This discourse gives meaning to visible and invisible ethno-cultural constructions that shaped the norms of social and political interactions among various ethnic groups in the country. The analysis concluded that South Sudan society is socially, politically, and culturally constructed along ethnicized communities with variant perceptions of group and regional identities based on both primordial ties and instrumentalists' perceptions. These unique characteristics of spaces and construction of social structure has created multifaceted challenges in the process of social, economic and political reconstruction after the independent of South Sudan in July 2011.

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