Affective Health and Masculinities in South Africa
Affective Health and Masculinities in South Africa

Author: Hans Reihling

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-04-03

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1000050548

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Affective Health and Masculinities in South Africa explores how different masculinities modulate substance use, interpersonal violence, suicidality, and AIDS as well as recovery cross-culturally. With a focus on three male protagonists living in very distinct urban areas of Cape Town, this comparative ethnography shows that men’s struggles to become invulnerable increase vulnerability. Through an analysis of masculinities as social assemblages, the study shows how affective health problems are tied to modern individualism rather than African ‘tradition’ that has become a cliché in Eurocentric gender studies. Affective health is conceptualized as a balancing act between autonomy and connectivity that after colonialism and apartheid has become compromised through the imperative of self-reliance. This book provides a rare perspective on young men’s vulnerability in everyday life that may affect the reader and spark discussion about how masculinities in relationships shape physical and psychological health. Moreover, it shows how men change in the face of distress in ways that may look different than global health and gender-transformative approaches envision. Thick descriptions of actual events over the life course make the study accessible to both graduate and undergraduate students in the social sciences. Contributing to current debates on mental health and masculinity, this volume will be of interest to scholars from various disciplines including anthropology, gender studies, African studies, psychology, and global health.

The Palgrave Handbook of African Men and Masculinities
The Palgrave Handbook of African Men and Masculinities

Author: Ezra Chitando

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2024

Total Pages: 995

ISBN-13: 303149167X

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This handbook provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary overview of key theoretical and analytical approaches, topics and debates in contemporary scholarship on African masculinities. Refusing to privilege Western theoretical constructs (but remaining in dialogue with them), contributors explore the contestations around and diversities within men, masculinities and sexualities in Africa; investigate individual and collective practices of masculinity; and interrogate the social construction of masculinities. Bringing together insights from scholars across gender studies, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, history, literature and religion, this book demonstrates how recognizing and upholding the integrity of African phenomena, locating and reflecting on men and masculinities in varied African contexts and drawing new theoretical frameworks all combine to take the discourse on men and masculinities in Africa forward. Chapters examine a range of issues within the context of masculinities, including embodiment, sport, violence, militarism, spirituality, gender roles, fatherhood, homosexuality, health and work. This handbook will be valuable reading for scholars, researchers, and policymakers in Gender Studies (particularly Masculinity Studies) and Africana Studies.

Affective Trajectories
Affective Trajectories

Author: Hansjörg Dilger

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2020-02-28

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 1478007168

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The contributors to Affective Trajectories examine the mutual and highly complex entwinements between religion and affect in urban Africa in the early twenty-first century. Drawing on ethnographic research throughout the continent and in African diasporic communities abroad, they trace the myriad ways religious ideas, practices, and materialities interact with affect to configure life in urban spaces. Whether examining the affective force of the built urban environment or how religious practices contribute to new forms of attachment, identification, and place-making, they illustrate the force of affect as it is shaped by temporality and spatiality in the religious lives of individuals and communities. Among other topics, they explore Masowe Apostolic Christianity in relation to experiences of displacement in Harare, Zimbabwe; Muslim identity, belonging, and the global ummah in Ghana; crime, emotions, and conversion to neo-Pentecostalism in Cape Town; and spiritual cleansing in a Congolese branch of a Japanese religious movement. In so doing, the contributors demonstrate how the social and material living conditions of African cities generate diverse affective forms of religious experiences in ways that foster both localized and transnational paths of emotional knowledge. Contributors. Astrid Bochow, Marian Burchardt, Rafael Cazarin, Hansjörg Dilger, Alessandro Gusman, Murtala Ibrahim, Peter Lambertz, Isabelle L. Lange, Isabel Mukonyora, Benedikt Pontzen, Hanspeter Reihling, Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon

Sex, Sexuality and Sexual Health in Southern Africa
Sex, Sexuality and Sexual Health in Southern Africa

Author: Deevia Bhana

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-07-15

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 1000613720

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This book—Sex, Sexuality and Sexual Health in Southern Africa—is structured around four major themes: gender and sexuality diversity; love, pleasure and respect; gender, sexual violence and health; and sexuality, gender and sexual justice. Chapters in this book analyse sexuality in relation to recent developments in the Southern African region and what this might mean for contemporary theory, policy and practice. Sex, sexuality and sexual health are often viewed through a narrow biomedical lens, ignoring the fact that they are profoundly social and historical in character. The contributors in this book bring to light the entanglements of sexuality with respect, recognition, rights and mutual respectful pleasure. Authors draw attention to partnerships, allyships and feminist, queer and trans coalitions in the pursuit of sexual health and justice in the region. The book will be of interest to final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers and activists as well as those working in Women and Gender Studies, Critical Sexuality Studies, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Development Studies, Public Health, Psychology, Education, Sociology and Anthropology.

African Masculinities
African Masculinities

Author: L. Ouzgane

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2005-03-15

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 140397960X

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While masculinity studies enjoys considerable growth in the West, there is very little analysis of African masculinities. This volume explores what it means for an African to be masculine and how male identity is shaped by cultural forces. The editors believe that to tackle the important questions in Africa-the many forms of violence (wars, genocides, familial violence and crime) and the AIDS pandemic-it is necessary to understand how a combination of a colonial past, patriarchal cultural structures and a variety of religious and knowledge systems creates masculine identities and sexualities. The work done in the book particularly bears in mind how vulnerability and marginalization produce complex forms of male identity. The book is interdisciplinary and is the first in-depth and comprehensive study of African men as a gendered category.

From Boys to Men
From Boys to Men

Author: Tamara Shefer

Publisher: Juta and Company Ltd

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 9781919895031

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Representing the work of some of the best-known theorists and researchers in masculinities and feminism in South Africa, this highly original work is comprised of a collection of papers presented at the "From Boys to Men" conference held in January 2005. Based on rich ethnographic studies in South Africa and elsewhere in in the continent, this collection addresses the argument that because South African feminine studies are fraught with problems, boys and men should be included in all research and intervention work studying gender equality and transformation. Chapters examine several issues of the African male psyche, such as varying identifiers of manhood, teenage masculinity, paternal responsibility, and the impact of HIV/AIDS in the region.

Mental Health Counseling for Men: Practical Strategies and Effective Engagement
Mental Health Counseling for Men: Practical Strategies and Effective Engagement

Author: Bates, Daniel

Publisher: IGI Global

Published: 2024-05-20

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13:

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In recent times, researchers, theorists, and mental health counselors have directed increased attention toward understanding and effectively treating men’s mental health issues. However, a significant stumbling block persists—comprehensive and evidence-based recommendations for mental health professionals are notably scarce. This glaring gap leaves practitioners grappling with uncertainty, struggling to comprehend how to adeptly engage and clinically treat men in therapy. As societal trends show alarming rates of suicide, substance abuse, and a reluctance among men to seek mental health services, the call for innovative and creative strategies becomes increasingly urgent. Mental Health Counseling for Men: Practical Strategies and Effective Engagement is a groundbreaking exploration that boldly confronts the issue at hand. The book recognizes the importance for mental health professionals to move beyond traditional approaches and embrace innovative strategies to effectively reach and treat men. Serving as a response to the escalating crisis, the book acts as a guide that seamlessly blends theoretical insights, practical counseling approaches, and evidence-based interventions. By unearthing the underlying challenges contributing to the disproportionate rates of mental health issues among men, this book aims to equip mental health counselors with the knowledge and tools needed to address and reverse these alarming trends. It connects the interest in men's mental health with the lack of practical advice, providing a path for practitioners to transform men's mental health care.

Insecure Masculinity
Insecure Masculinity

Author: Julia Faulhaber

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-10-27

Total Pages: 63

ISBN-13: 3658395907

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This work focuses on the relationship between childhood socialization, masculinities, and young men’s coming of age in contemporary Jamaica. The author elucidates social, cultural, and historical dimensions of young men’s lifeworlds and theorizes on the potential trajectories of being emotionally well and/or un-well vis-à-vis gendered normative orders of growing up and relating to others within and beyond kinship and courtship relations. Based on fieldwork, this book elaborates on the extent to which social discourses of masculinity and men’s personal experiences of their own and other men’s mental health are reproduced in Jamaica. Faulhaber places her work in contemporary psychological and medical anthropology and aims to overcome the separation of psyche, body, and environment that is often common in psychotherapy, psychiatry, and health sciences. The author embarks on this important endeavour through critical and self-reflexive ethnography and the analysis of hegemonic narratives and discourses in media and popular culture. In juxtaposition and extension to other global mental health initiatives, this work highlights that well-being, affliction and suffering can barely be grasped scientifically as objectively measurable mental states of the individual.

Effective and Legitimate Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood
Effective and Legitimate Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood

Author: Eric Stollenwerk

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2022-08-18

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 019267479X

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How can effective and legitimate governance be ensured where state institutions are weak? This is a key question for domestic and international politics. One answer to this question that has received considerable attention in political science, but also among development agencies and international organizations, is virtuous circles of governance. In such circles, effective and legitimate governance are thought to be mutually reinforcing. The idea is that more effective governance leads to more legitimacy and more legitimacy to more effectiveness in governance. In many parts of the world, however, state institutions are weak and citizens perceive governance as ineffective and governance actors lack legitimacy. This places a large question mark behind the idea of virtuous circles of governance. Effective and Legitimate Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood asks: How likely are virtuous circles of governance to evolve in areas of limited statehood? The central claim of this book is that virtuous circles of governance are possible in areas of limited statehood, but more likely to evolve for external and non-state actors than for the state. The state is often part of the governance problem rather than the solution. Based on a new theoretical model for the interplay between effective and legitimate governance, the study provides in-depth empirical evidence for its argument by drawing on innovative qualitative and quantitative data. The case studies of Sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria, and Afghanistan underline the key argument by considering state, external, and non-state actors. The book offers conceptual innovations, new empirical evidence, and policy recommendations of how to ensure effective and legitimate governance in areas of limited statehood.