Browsing by Subject "Rural areas"

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    The dynamics of household formation and composition in the rural Eastern Cape.
    (2008) Neves, David; Du Toit, Andries
    Focusing on a specific impoverished region of rural Eastern Cape, this paper examines the dynamics of household formation and composition within postapartheid migratory networks. While the fluidity, contingency and spatially extended nature of African households is generally understood, the paper focuses on the social relationships that both buttress and flow from these qualities. In conceptualising the notion of the household, the paper also suggests the rubric of the ‘household’ can be a powerful, cultural narrative for constituting practices of domesticity. Five detailed case studies are presented and the dynamics of household-making explicated in terms of three distinct levels of analysis. The first is the overarching macro-structural context which includes kinship practices, cultural mores, rural governance and the changing political economy of South Africa’s former homelands. The paper argues that the altered material base of rural livelihoods in the last two decades has seen traditional patterns of male circular migration and trajectories of household formation eclipsed by large numbers of economically marginalised workseekers who precariously churn between both urban-rural and within rural areas. These changes have undercut the prospects for traditional forms of household formation and reconfigured the nature of the contemporary conjugal contract.
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    Sexual behaviour of men and women within age-disparate partnerships in South Africa: implications for young women's HIV risk
    (Public Library of Science, 2016) Maughan-Brown, Brendan; Evans, Meredith; George, Gavin
    BACKGROUND: Age-disparate partnerships are hypothesized to increase HIV-risk for young women. However, the evidence base remains mixed. Most studies have focused only on unprotected sex among women in the partnership. Consequently, little is known about other risky behaviours, such as transactional sex, alcohol use, and concurrency, as well as the behaviours of the men who partner with young women. We therefore examined differences in various sexual behaviours of both young women and their male partners by partnership age difference. METHODS: We used nationally representative data from South Africa (2012) on partnerships reported by 16-24 year old black African women (n = 818) and by black African men in partnerships with 16-24 year old women (n = 985). We compared sexual behaviours in age-disparate partnerships and age-similar partnerships, using multiple logistic regression to control for potential confounders and to assess rural/urban differences. RESULTS: Young women in age-disparate partnerships were more likely to report unprotected sex than young women in similar-aged partnerships (aOR:1.51; p = 0.014; 95%CI:1.09-2.11). Men in partnerships with young women were more likely to report unprotected sex (aOR:1.92; p<0.01; 95%CI:1.31-2.81), transactional sex (aOR:2.73; p<0.01; 95%CI:1.64-4.56), drinking alcohol before sex (aOR:1.60; p = 0.062; 95%CI:0.98-2.61), and concurrency (aOR:1.39; p = 0.097; 95%CI:0.94-2.07) when their partners were five or more years younger. The association between age-disparate partnerships and transactional sex (aOR:4.14; p<0.01; 95%CI: 2.03-8.46) and alcohol use (aOR:2.24; p<0.013; 95%CI:1.20-4.19) was only found in urban areas. CONCLUSIONS: Results provide evidence that young women's age-disparate partnerships involve greater sexual risk, particularly through the risky behaviours of their male partners, with the risk amplified for young women in urban areas.