Secondary stigma: a case study of people affected by HIV/AIDS in White City Jabavu-Soweto

Abstract

ABSTRACT This qualitative research study is about the lived experiences of people affected by HIV/AIDS related secondary stigma in White City, Jabavu – Soweto in South Africa. Whilst the initial project was fairly narrowly conceived, the findings from this research drove the researcher to explore, at some considerable length, two principal areas which were not part of the original conception of the project. These two areas are: Firstly, the researcher’s argument that stigma in White City must be understood in the broader context of pre-existing forms of stigma which he asserts create a “stigmatizing environment” in which new forms of stigma find a fertile social, cultural and economic world in which to take root and flourish. Secondly, the researcher’s recognition that the manner in which the research participants develop coping mechanisms to deal with their experiences of secondary stigma is a critically important dynamic in understanding the experiences of stigma among those research participants.