IntroductionThis article explores the complex, dynamic and contextual frameworks within which men working in a mining community and their live-in long-term partners or spouses (termed “couples” in this study) respond to the introduction of HIV into their heterosexual relationships; the way in which partners adopt gendered positions in enabling them to make sense of their illness; how they negotiate their respective masculine and feminine roles in response to the need for HIV-related lifestyle changes; as well as the gendered nature of partner support in relation to antiretroviral therapy (ARV) adherence.MethodsWe conducted an in-depth qualitative study with a sample of 12 HIV-positive seroconcordant heterosexual couples in a South African mining organization. Transcripts based on semi-structured couple's interviews were analyzed using an inductive emergent thematic analytical method.ResultsThe findings present compelling evidence that the impact of HIV and AIDS is mitigated, in the main, by the nature of the dyadic relationship. Where power and agency were skewed in accordance with traditional gender scripts, the impact of HIV and AIDS was deleterious in terms of negotiating disclosure, meeting expectations of care and support, and promoting treatment adherence. As a corollary, the study also revealed that where the relational dynamic evidenced a more equitable distribution of power, the challenge of negotiating illness was embraced in a way that strengthened the couples’ affiliation in profound ways, manifested not simply in a reduction in risk behaviours, but in both partner's courage to re-visit sensitive issues related to managing their relationship in the context of a debilitating illness.ConclusionsGendered positioning (by self and others) was found to play a crucial role in the way couples experienced HIV and ARV treatment, and underscored the positive role of a couples-counselling approach in the negotiation of the illness experience. However, as part of a broader social project, the findings highlight the need to address the shortcomings of a public health discourse on illness normalization that reifies and reinforces skewed gender relations. In essence, the findings make a compelling case for targeting couples as the primary unit of analysis and intervention in HIV and AIDS praxis, not only to enhance treatment and prevention outcomes, but to impact on and potentially transform the lived identity of such relationships, in AIDS-affected communities. We recommend early intervention with couples in terms of couples HIV testing, risk-reduction counselling and gender-based interventions giving couples opportunities to revisit and challenge their prevailing gendered identities. We note, however, that these efforts will be undermined in the long term, if the structural drivers of HIV risk and vulnerability, contained within macro-level social, economic and cultural practices, are not simultaneously addressed.

Social and psychological barriers to the disclosure of one's seropositive HIV status to significant others and poor adherence to taking medications pose significant challenges to the scaling-up of access to antiretroviral treatment (ART) in the workplace. Such barriers are predictive of sub-optimal treatment outcomes and bedevil HIV-prevention interventions at a societal level. Against this background, this article explores the lived experiences of 19 HIV-positive male participants, between the ages of 33 and 57 years, who were enrolled in an ART programme managed at an occupational health clinic at a mining company in South Africa. The majority of these mineworkers had been aware of their HIV status for between 5 and 7 years. The study explored psychological and relational factors, as aspects of these participants lived experiences, which had a bearing on their adherence to their ART regimen and the disclosure choices that they made regarding their HIV status. In our sample, those participants who were adherent demonstrated higher levels of control and acceptance of their HIV infection and were more confident in their ability to manage their treatment, while the group who were non-adherent presented with lower levels of adherence motivation and self-efficacy, difficulties in maintaining a healthy lifestyle and significant challenges in maintaining control over their lives. While most of the men favoured disclosing their HIV status to their partners for the sake of treatment support, they were less sure about disclosing to family members and non-family members, respectively, because of their need to protect these persons and due to their fear of being stigmatised. It was evident that treatment adherence choices and behaviours were impacted by psychological and relational factors, including disclosure decisions. We conclude with a bivariate model for understanding the adherence behaviours that influenced different patterns of ART adherence among the sample, and offer recommendations for HIV-prevention and treatment interventions in a mining workplace.

We report three studies that develop and test a new measure of racial attitudes, the Racial Justice Scale (RJS). The concept of racial justice was developed inductively in Study 1 by means of a thematic analysis of existing measures of racial attitudes as well as a database of over 7 000 comments about racism and discrimination, taken from South African newspapers. Studies 2 and 3 investigate the reliability and validity of the RJS, and compare it with Duckitt's measure of subtle racism. The data suggest that the preliminary RJS, reported in Appendix 2, is a unidimensional and reliable measure. Although the two studies provide a mixed picture of its correlates, it does measure a different construct of racial attitudes to Duckitt's scale, which is strongly correlated with oldfashioned racism. Participation in all the studies was done on a voluntary basis, with full informed consent of the participants.

Drawing on social constructionist and post-structuralist theoretical frameworks, this study examined the complexities that constitute women’s narratives within a mining organisation in South Africa. With specific reference to the social constructs of identity, conflict and power, the aims of this study were to investigate how women narrate their experience, the ways in which women live with the tensions of a workplace that is potentially both liberating and limiting and the implications of these tensions for women’s well-being, identities and social roles. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine women in management positions and were analysed using an inductive emergent thematic analytical method. The nature of identity that emerged from the participants’ narratives was viewed as an act of weaving together the multiple strands of the self, where participants recognised the points at which these multiple strands intercept and where they diverge. At each point of interception and divergence there were expressions of ambiguous identity or identity salience. Identity was seen to be mediated by the micro-physics of power and, within this framework, participants were seen to be agents in negotiating an authentic and egalitarian self, and a space for women in mining.

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