The demography of family reunification: from circulation to substitution in Gambian Spain

-Gambia, The, Spain, family demography, family reunification, migration, migration policy

Family reunification ideals and the practice of transnational reproductive life among Africans in Europe

-family, migration

The impact of family and budget structure onhealth treatment in Nigeria

Health-treatment decisions, in much of the world, are affected by the family’s ability to meet thecost. In West Africa the situation is more complex because husbands and wives typically haveseparate budgets. This article reports an exploration of the impact on treatment of divided familybudgets in Nigeria where health services now charge for prescribed drugs. It was found that mostchild treatment is paid for by one person only, usually a parent, and that the treatment chosen isdecided by the person meeting the cost. Mothers are most likely to pay for minor illnesses but thefather’s role becomes more important as the cost rises. Because the type, and even fact, oftreatment depends on the ability to pay, and because the family is not a unity in these decisions,the health system may have to devise charging procedures that make both parents responsible,possibly with community involvement in securing paymen

Wealth-in-people and practical rationality: aspirations and decisions about money in South Africa

This article explores crucial decisions made by Sylvia, a Xhosa woman living in the townships of Cape Town, during a period of approximately thirty years. These decisions involved large sums of money and had important consequences for her own life, for those of her son and grandchild, and for the relationships she had with her first and second husbands and in‐laws. Sylvia's decisions continued to be influenced by gendered ways of belonging to ancestors and descendants but also show important changes in connecting wealth and people. The wealth‐in‐people approach offers important insights into how Sylvia's decisions are guided by power and control over people as well as by prestige. However, it also becomes evident that the wealth‐in‐people approach does not sufficiently explain or theorize the agency of people. By drawing on the philosophical notion of practical rationality as a complementary analytical perspective, I explore agency in relation to aspirations and the acquisition of new open‐ended values. The perspective offered by practical rationality increases our understanding of how individual decisions, especially complex decisions around money, are made because of their transformative potential and the aspiration to cultivate oneself.Horizon 2020(H2020)Global Challenges (FSW

Social dimensions of fertility behavior and consumption patterns in the Anthropocene.

We consider two aspects of the human enterprise that profoundly affect the global environment: population and consumption. We show that fertility and consumption behavior harbor a class of externalities that have not been much noted in the literature. Both are driven in part by attitudes and preferences that are not egoistic but socially embedded; that is, each household's decisions are influenced by the decisions made by others. In a famous paper, Garrett Hardin [G. Hardin, Science 162, 1243-1248 (1968)] drew attention to overpopulation and concluded that the solution lay in people "abandoning the freedom to breed." That human attitudes and practices are socially embedded suggests that it is possible for people to reduce their fertility rates and consumption demands without experiencing a loss in wellbeing. We focus on fertility in sub-Saharan Africa and consumption in the rich world and argue that bottom-up social mechanisms rather than top-down government interventions are better placed to bring about those ecologically desirable changes

The correlates of HIV testing and impacts on sexual behavior: evidence from a life history study of young people in Kisumu, Kenya

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>HIV counseling and testing is considered an important component of HIV prevention and treatment. This paper examines the characteristics of young males and females at the time of first reported HIV test, including the influence of recent sexual partnerships, and investigates how HIV testing and the cumulative number of tests are associated with sexual behaviors within six months of testing.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study uses data from a random sample of youth aged 18-24 years living in Kisumu, Kenya, who were interviewed using a 10-year retrospective life history calendar. Cox regression models were used to examine the correlates of the timing of first HIV test. Variance-correction models for unordered repeated events were employed to examine whether having an HIV test in the previous six months and the cumulative number of tests predict unsafe sexual practices in a given month.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Sixty-four percent of females and 55% of males reported at least one HIV test in the last 10 years and 40% of females were pregnant the month of first test. Significant correlates of first HIV test included marital aspirations among non-pregnant females, unprotected sex in the previous six months among pregnant females, and concurrency in the previous six months among males. Having a recent HIV test was associated with a decreased likelihood of unprotected sex among ever-pregnant females, an increased likelihood of unprotected sex and "risky" sexual partnerships among never-pregnant females, and an increased likelihood of concurrency among males. Repeated HIV testing was associated with a lower likelihood of concurrency among males and involvement in "risky" sexual partnerships among males and never-pregnant females.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The high rate of pregnancy at first test suggests that promotion of HIV testing as part of prevention of mother-to-child transmission is gaining success. Further research is warranted to examine how and why behavior change is influenced by client- versus provider-initiated testing. The influence of different sexual partnership variables for males and females suggests that interventions to assess risk and promote testing should be gender- and relationship-specific. The findings also suggest that encouraging repeat or routine testing could potentially increase the uptake of safer sexual behaviors.</p

Women And Marriage in Kpelle Society

xiii.217 hal.;ill.;21 c