Background: HIV has been reconceptualised as a long term chronic health condition due to advances in highly active antiretroviral therapy. Nonetheless it remains a stigmatising and under-recognised condition. One social group that HIV disproportionately affects is the Black African population. However there is a dearth of research into the lived experiences of HIV positive Black African communities in the U.K. specific to parenting. Objectives: This study seeks to explore the lived experience of Black African HIV positive fathers, living in the UK. This is of significance to counselling psychologists because illness representation models typically neglect the interactions of significant others and wider social contexts when conceptualising the impact of illness. Design: This research utilises a qualitative method, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to examine data. IPA is effectual in new and complex areas of study, concerning identity and meaning making. It enables the researcher to acquire an 'insider perspective' into people's cognitive reasoning as well as the social and cultural context surrounding experiences. Method: Six Black African HIV positive fathers were recruited via HIV charities. Participants were requested to attend a 60-90 minute, semi-structured interview and asked questions about their experiences of living with HIV and how it impacts on their role as fathers. Results: Four super-ordinate themes were identified: 1) Responses to HIV diagnosis-the demise of the physical and social self 2) HIV stigma-'they don't realise that anyone can get it' 3) Re-emergence of the self 4) Fatherhood- a changing identity. The results revealed experiences of living with HIV and the impact that this has on their role as fathers. Participants talked about their initial reactions and responses to receiving a diagnosis of HIV, as well as the challenges of living with HIV within their communities and wider society that impacted on their disclosure decisions. The research highlights the significance of HIV support services that helped participants to accept their HIV status. The participants wished to play a key role in the lives of their children. The findings of this study emphasise the importance of incorporating interventions that help black African men to view themselves in a positive light and to foster their parenting role following a diagnosis of HIV. The results of the analysis are considered in light of existing theory and their clinical implications.

Neoliberal globalization can threaten the growth of a global civil society that sanctions power-sharing arrangements. Yet, scholarship that focuses unidirectionally on global processes may in effect eviscerate the transformative power of the local. To counter this tendency, this dissertation examines the interrelationships between contextualized and historically-specific experiences in South Africa and transnational processes through a case study of social entrepreneurship, an emerging global justice movement. Drawing on a 12-months institutional ethnography of Sonke Gender Justice, a transnational social entrepreneurship NGO working to achieve gender equality, prevent gender-based violence and reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa, this dissertation explores the gendered dimensions of identity construction under conditions of neoliberalism. I look at the ways in which a transnational discourse of masculinity unfolds and is confronted locally as an essential element of the neoliberal project. I argue that, in Africa, the developmentalist agenda of neoliberalism is integrally tied to the demonization of black masculinity, posed as a problem. This acts to elide the ways in which factors of oppression intersect in the manufacture of a patriarchal, sexist, racist and homophobic society, negating any effort to promote healthy gender relations. The dissertation concludes that global discourses and scholarship on African masculinity need to be informed by African women’s lived experiences, survival strategies, and aspirations for gender and racial democracy in order for the development of a truly transformative gendered democracy to occur. This can be accomplished by sound and detailed ethnographic work that engages with the messiness and fluidity of cultures, knowledges, and practices on the ground. This approach opens up spaces of possibilities and visibility for an array of local renegotiations, borrowings, and frank resistances. My conclusion acknowledges the potential for significant contributions to global civil society’s struggle for justice and for transformation when transnational solidarity projects are inserted into local formations. However, these goals can only be accomplished when there is acknowledgement and engagement of the practical ways in which local agents try to negotiate and reformulate transnational discourses and challenge neoliberal representations.