Published Articles / Central University of Technology (CUT) holds awareness campaigns on yearly basis to educate and test students on health related issues. Basic knowledge about the spread of HIV and safe sexual practices has a critical impact on prevention of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and other associated diseases such as TB. The problem among students at higher education institutions (HEIs) is that they are a high risk group of contracting HIV infection due to uninformed decisions that they end up making. This study aimed to assess the knowledge and attitudes of CUT students towards HIV, sexual transmitted infections (STIs) and sexuality. A cross sectional survey of 120 randomly selected undergraduate students (73 females, 47 males, aged 18-25 years) was performed. Questionnaires were used to assess the knowledge and attitude of the students towards HIV and AIDS. Generated knowledge and attitude scores from the student responses and gender variable were used to study their association. Students had heard about HIV, and 93% understood that HIV is not curable. Ninety percent of the students were aware of the symptoms of STIs, and some didn't know that STIs are associated with an increased chances of having HIV. Participants were well informed about selected aspects of HIV. A high number of participants were conversant with the modes of spread of HIV and the use of condoms in preventing STIs and HIV infection. The gap of knowledge between males and females, and the way they attend to the testing facility suggests the need for targeting males in the national awareness campaigns. The Medical Center should continue to host and fund health awareness campaigns because they play a major role as source of information.

Human sexual behaviour is highly variable and not tightly linked to biological reproduction. However, it has not been studied as social behaviour until the last 40 years and until recently it is largely deviant behaviour that has gained the attention of sociologists. Sociology has adopted an unnecessarily antibiologistic position and consequently neglected the body. In reviewing sociological approaches to sex I draw on social constructionism, particularly the work of Gagnon and Simon (1974) and their notion of scripts; these can be interpreted as discursive structures defining sexual acts and sexual actors at both the individual and societal level. I outline a range of social constructionist positions in relation to sexuality and adopt a moderately radical but realist one that concedes some place for the physiology of arousal linking the elements of the discursive realm of the sexual in social life. Finding the basic assumptions of symbolic interactionism a fruitful base from which to approach sexual conduct I reject the concept of 'desire' as too complex and obscure to serve as a starting point in understanding the social organisation of sex. A review of the ethnographic observational studies of settings in which men have casual sex shows that beats (public places such as parks and toilets) operate in a similar manner in many countries. Commercial sex venues are more varied. They are safer and more comfortable than beats and may offer private rooms and facilities for esoteric sex such as bondage. Sex in such settings is impersonal and anonymous, costs little effort, time or money, and offers a variety of partners. Interaction is largely nonverbal. Interview studies of men who have casual sex with other men tend to undersample men who are not gay-identified, but they offer insights into men's motivations and understandings. Both kinds of research are necessary. The empirical component of the thesis is a thematic analysis of transcripts from three interview studies of gay men in Sydney done between 1993 and 1997: Negotiating Sex (n = 9), the Sites study (n = 21) and the Seroconversion study (n = 70). All involved detailed narratives of sexual encounters. The analysis takes a situational interactionist approach with a specific focus on practice. Central questions asked are: how does the setting (beat, sex venue, home) affect what happens? What does sex mean to the men, and how does this affect what they do? How do men's sexual skills, tastes and experience relate to their practice? How do men's bodies and their understandings of the body affect their practice? What do different sexual practices mean and how are they organised and negotiated within the encounter? How (if at all) do men integrate considerations of safe sex into their practice? Physical surroundings were found to have a profound effect on practice. Sex venues as cultural institutions enable patterns of practice that do not occur elsewhere. Physical arrangements within beats and venues encourage or enable particular practices, such as oral sex or group sex. Motivations for and meanings of sex to the participants varied widely; these were related to practice within the men's own accounts but not in any clear predictive way. Men's sexual skills, tastes and preferences, which were also very varied, related to their practice. Men made trade-offs between risk and pleasure. Men looked for a range of features in casual partners. Suppression of social cues restricted the range of criteria on which partners were selected, enabling wider choice. Men's bodies affected their practice most strikingly in the issue of erection or the lack of it. Understandings of the body and physiological processes affected men's interpretations of information about HIV risk. These men have a vocabulary of sexual practices within which some common practices are less salient. These practices are socially patterned in ways that benefit men with certain tastes and abilities and frustrate those with others. Safe sex considerations are routinely integrated into sexual practice but in a way that leaves room for considerable risk of HIV transmission. In conclusion I argue that conceptualising sex between men exclusively in terms of gay identity and culture is inappropriate. The outcome of the empirical work confirms the theoretical analysis that found it necessary to incorporate some physiological notions, such as 'libido', into a social constructionist view of sex. The findings and their interpretations have important implications for framing effective HIV prevention programs. Some specific suggestions are made for how this might be done.

My research investigates young people's stories of sexual practice. I focus on the questions: How do young people construct their sexual practices and their use of `safer' sex and, in particular, how important are `conventional' notions of gender and heterosexuality in these constructions? To answer these questions I collected and transcribed in-depth interviews from 25 young people aged between 16 and 19 from schools and youth groups in a London borough. Using a discourse analytic approach (Edley and Wetherell 1997) I draw my analysis directly from the participants' talk and how they construct a sexual story rather than framing the analysis through assumptions of gender inequality. Previous feminist literature, and in particular that of Holland et al. (1998), suggests that sexual experiences are constructed predominantly through a 'traditional' framework of gender. In this literature masculinity is said to be dominant in the heterosexual relationship, whereas femininity is seen as collaborative and submissive. In my thesis I question whether young people construct their intimate experiences through such `conventional' gendered patterns of behaviour and heteronormative values. I suggest an alternative analysis of young people's sex talk through focusing on discursive scripts emerging from the data in three areas: diversity, time/life plan, and trust. I argue that these scripts, for example the time and life plan scripts, are important features of young people's talk about sexual practices and are used as justifications for the use or non-use of 'safer' sex. The participants' talk that I call the 'children-older-with-a-platform' life plan script legitimises the use of condoms and/or pill as a method of protecting their plan. The 'children-now' script is a justification for the non-use of 'safer' sex. My research concludes that there are diverse stories of intimate experiences told in certain contexts by young people that have not previously been noted by researchers.

Human sexual behaviour is highly variable and not tightly linked to biological reproduction. However, it has not been studied as social behaviour until the last 40 years and until recently it is largely deviant behaviour that has gained the attention of sociologists. Sociology has adopted an unnecessarily antibiologistic position and consequently neglected the body. In reviewing sociological approaches to sex I draw on social constructionism, particularly the work of Gagnon and Simon (1974) and their notion of scripts; these can be interpreted as discursive structures defining sexual acts and sexual actors at both the individual and societal level. I outline a range of social constructionist positions in relation to sexuality and adopt a moderately radical but realist one that concedes some place for the physiology of arousal linking the elements of the discursive realm of the sexual in social life. Finding the basic assumptions of symbolic interactionism a fruitful base from which to approach sexual conduct I reject the concept of 'desire' as too complex and obscure to serve as a starting point in understanding the social organisation of sex. A review of the ethnographic observational studies of settings in which men have casual sex shows that beats (public places such as parks and toilets) operate in a similar manner in many countries. Commercial sex venues are more varied. They are safer and more comfortable than beats and may offer private rooms and facilities for esoteric sex such as bondage. Sex in such settings is impersonal and anonymous, costs little effort, time or money, and offers a variety of partners. Interaction is largely nonverbal. Interview studies of men who have casual sex with other men tend to undersample men who are not gay-identified, but they offer insights into men's motivations and understandings. Both kinds of research are necessary. The empirical component of the thesis is a thematic analysis of transcripts from three interview studies of gay men in Sydney done between 1993 and 1997: Negotiating Sex (n = 9), the Sites study (n = 21) and the Seroconversion study (n = 70). All involved detailed narratives of sexual encounters. The analysis takes a situational interactionist approach with a specific focus on practice. Central questions asked are: how does the setting (beat, sex venue, home) affect what happens? What does sex mean to the men, and how does this affect what they do? How do men's sexual skills, tastes and experience relate to their practice? How do men's bodies and their understandings of the body affect their practice? What do different sexual practices mean and how are they organised and negotiated within the encounter? How (if at all) do men integrate considerations of safe sex into their practice? Physical surroundings were found to have a profound effect on practice. Sex venues as cultural institutions enable patterns of practice that do not occur elsewhere. Physical arrangements within beats and venues encourage or enable particular practices, such as oral sex or group sex. Motivations for and meanings of sex to the participants varied widely; these were related to practice within the men's own accounts but not in any clear predictive way. Men's sexual skills, tastes and preferences, which were also very varied, related to their practice. Men made trade-offs between risk and pleasure. Men looked for a range of features in casual partners. Suppression of social cues restricted the range of criteria on which partners were selected, enabling wider choice. Men's bodies affected their practice most strikingly in the issue of erection or the lack of it. Understandings of the body and physiological processes affected men's interpretations of information about HIV risk. These men have a vocabulary of sexual practices within which some common practices are less salient. These practices are socially patterned in ways that benefit men with certain tastes and abilities and frustrate those with others. Safe sex considerations are routinely integrated into sexual practice but in a way that leaves room for considerable risk of HIV transmission. In conclusion I argue that conceptualising sex between men exclusively in terms of gay identity and culture is inappropriate. The outcome of the empirical work confirms the theoretical analysis that found it necessary to incorporate some physiological notions, such as 'libido', into a social constructionist view of sex. The findings and their interpretations have important implications for framing effective HIV prevention programs. Some specific suggestions are made for how this might be done.

Contemporary sex therapy, as a social location within which interventions are made in the field of human sexuality, constitutes a terminal point through which discourses of race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality interface and become meditated. It is also a site in which the particular outcomes of this mediation can be expected to have a significant bearing upon clients who, as social and sexual subjects, carry diverse racialised and ethnicised identities. Though a substantial literature exists pertaining to classical sexology, relatively little is sociologically known about contemporary sex therapy within the UK, and nothing is known of the manner in which discourses of race and ethnicity operate within the field. This exploratory research examines the discourses produced by sex therapists (both in talk and text) regarding the nature and significance of race and ethnicity, and the substantive qualities, significance and effects attributed to these in shaping patterns of human sexuality, sexual dysfunction and sex therapy. The aim is to analyse and account for these discourses as the products of underlying cognitive models of race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality, as these have evolved within the particular social location of sex therapy (as a deposit of a broader racialised and ethnicised social consciousness), and formed the basis of an active utilisation by therapists in the pursuit of `preferred renditions' of sex therapy practice. The thesis also aims to explore sex therapists' accounts of the necessary and sufficient conditions for the achievement of effective, equitable and non-oppressive therapeutic intervention in a context of racial and ethnic diversity. The research supports a rendition of sex therapy as a complex constituency, struggling to make sense of the nature and significance of race and ethnicity as sources of difference, and as dimensions of the social subject. Liberal-humanistic, biological-essentialist and versions of ethnic essentialism compete and coalesce as the primary elements of sex therapists' constructions of race and ethnicity as dimensions of the gendered sexual subject, informing their accounts of the necessary and sufficient conditions for the delivery of appropriate, sensitive and non-oppressive praxis.

Feminist theory and research has made a distinction between heterosexuality as a practice and heterosexuality as an institution and the line between the two is an area of confusion and contradiction. Discussions have been hampered by an unnecessary binary that hinders and limits theorising, working to silence the debates from either side, produce unnecessary divisions within feminism and inhibit the development of links between theory and practice. In examining heterosexuality as either an institution or a practice, it has been constructed as dangerous or pleasurable, victimising or agentic, oppressive or liberating, social or sexual. Missing between these two is a link that would suggest how these liberating activities challenge the heterosexual institution or how the analysis of the institution can make a material impact on women's sexual relationships. Women who identify as feminist and heterosexual are situated at the intersection of these two discourses where heterosexuality as an institution is defined as dangerous and oppressive, and heterosex as a practice is seen as pleasurable and liberating. To consider the intersection of institution and practice, the research asked 40 self-identified heterosexual feminists, between the ages of 19 and 68, about their sexual practice in the light both of feminist theorising around heterosexuality and its construction in the media. Taking the media as an institution that may both sustain and reinforce a discourse of heterosexuality, the research explores the mediation of women's heterosexuality and the potential for a feminist practice of resistance through the pleasurable consumption of media images. Employing a broad analysis of the media the thesis adopts a multi-methodological approach in the range of data collected, the methods employed and the analysis undertaken. It addresses three aims. First, to contribute to the wider literature within feminism. about heterosexuality and sexual practice. Second, to understand the role of the media in formulating feminist and heterosexual identities. Third, to consider the use and application of a range of different methods for a feminist cultural politics. Drawing on data from qualitative and quantitative media reviews, a questionnaire study; and diaries, focus groups and telephone interviews with the participants, I discuss the construction of heterosexuality and feminism, and the women's talk about their sexual practice.

ABSTRAKTSexualitet och sexuell hälsa är ämnen viktiga för välmående och som bör lyftas fram av professionella i arbetet med människor. Genom åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer med informanter inom sexologiområdet har studien utforskat en modell, Occupational Perspective of Sexuality (OPS), för att ta reda på om den kan bidra till sexologisk praktik, och i så fall på vilket sätt. Utifrån två frågeställningar: Vad kan sexologer beskriva om sexualitet och sexuell hälsa utifrån de fyra dimensionerna i OPS: att göra sexuella handlingar, att vara en sexuell varelse, att bli en sexuell person och att tillhöra sin sexualitet? och Hur beskriver sexologer att de fäster vikt vid: göra, vara, bli och tillhöra i sitt arbete? Empirin ger en uppdelning av att tillhöra i två delar: att tillhöra sin sexualitet och att tillhöra i relationer. Den senare handlar om tillhörighet till gruppen och lyfter fram styrkan som finns i tillhörigheter, den förra handlar om individens egen sexuella identitet och formandet av den. Resultatet visar att det verkar finnas en osäkerhet och att det saknas förståelse för sexualitet som en mångfald. Resultatet bekräftar tidigare forskning om hur externa faktorer så som människors attityder eller samhällets och/eller gruppers normer kan bli begränsande faktorer för sexualitetsprocessen. Slutligen så verkar en del människors sexualitet begränsas av att reflektioner kring sitt sexuella-jag saknas, vilket verkar bidra till att känsligheten för extern påverkan ökar. Mot bakgrund av det sexologerna i studien diskuterar så kan OPS-modellen vara ett verktyg för att möjliggöra samtal kring sexualitet och sexuell hälsa. Modellen bör användas med båda perspektiven av att tillhöra samt förslagsvis tillsammans med Ex-PLISSIT, för än mer reflekterande. Tillsammans kan de ge möjlighet till en bredare syn på sexualitet, ökad självkännedom samt djupare känsla för att tillhöra sin sexualitet, på sina villkor. Nyckelord: sexualitet, sexologisk praktik, sexuell hälsa, tillhöra, identitet, normer / ABSTRACTSexuality and sexual health are important issues for well-being and ought to be highlighted by professionals in different ways when working with people. Through eight semi-structured interviews with specialists in the field of sexology, this study has explored a model, Occupational Perspective of Sexuality (OPS), to find out if it can contribute to sexual practice, and if so, in what way? Based on two questions: What can sexologists describe about sexuality and sexual health based on the four dimensions of OPS: doing sex(uality), being a sexual being, becoming a sexual being, belonging to one's sexuality? and How do sexologists describe how they attach importance to: doing, being, becoming and belonging, in their work?The empiricism divides belonging into two parts: belonging to one's sexuality and belonging to relationships. The latter is about belonging to a group and highlighting the strength existing in belonging, the former is about the individual's own sexual identity and the development of it.The outcome shows there seems to be some uncertainty and lack of understanding of sexuality as diversity. The results confirm previous research on how external factors such as people's attitudes or norms of society and/or groups can become limiting factors for the sexuality process. Finally, some people's sexuality seems to be limited by the lack of reflections on their sexual self, which seems to increase the sensitivity to external influence.In light of what the sexologists in this study are discussing, the OPS model can be a tool for enabling conversations about sexuality and sexual health. The model should be used with both perspectives of belonging, as well as, together with Ex-PLISSIT, for even more reflections. Together, they can provide a broader view of sexuality, increased self-awareness and a deeper sense of belonging to one’s sexuality, on their own terms.Keywords: sexuality, sexual practice, sexual health, belonging, identity, norms,

In Ethiopia the number of young people going to college is steadily increasing. This predisposes them to risky sexual behaviour which leads to unwanted pregnancy, unsafe abortions and HIV. This study has aimed to determine the patterns of sexual practice and contraceptives use and risk behaviours among those students in central Ethiopia. A descriptive cross-sectional survey was employed. Data on sexual practice, knowledge and contraceptive use were collected from 327 college students. The data were cleaned, entered and analysed using SPSS version 20. The results revealed that despite their knowledge of the methods of safe sex, there are still considerable misconceptions regarding the effectiveness of contraceptives, their side effects and their proper use. In terms of the sexual practice reported by the respondents, 142 (43.4%) practised sex and 110 (77.5%) of respondents had used contraceptives at least once. The age of the respondents, the number of years for which they stayed in college and their fields of study were significantly associated with their sexual practice. In conclusion, a significant number of college students practised sex without using contraceptives to prevent pregnancy, and a considerable number of their partners disapproved of the use of contraceptives / Health Studies / M.A. (Public Health)

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