ABSTRACT
A clear reading of international public health history, from malaria to measles, shows us that technical fixes to health problems tend to leave the social and economic determinants of health, and the relationships that underpin them, untouched. From the very beginning, social scientists fought to get attention for an alternative to the narrow narrative of HIV transmission arising from the public health literature. Johnston discusses the fashion for HIV-related cash transfers, which aim to reduce HIV risk by changing behaviour. Rather than simple technical solutions or simplistic approaches to behaviour change, a political economy approach has instead focused on the complexity of the analysis, not least because the patterns of capitalist development and labour flows in Africa are complex and not reducible to easy simplification. The special issue acts to reassert a long-standing political economy approach to HIV, and to adapt it to reflect new competing theoretical approaches and new policy initiatives.
