Sustainability and Social Justice

From Population Control to AIDS: Conceptualising and Critiquing the Global Crisis Model

Document Type

Article

Abstract

This essay takes as its point of departure comparative analyses of the population control movement and the global AIDS response. We argue that the responses to both rapid population growth and AIDS reflect a particular model for approaching development issues: The global crisis model. This model provides a framework in which development issues become classified as (1) global in scope, (2) highly urgent and unique, (3) a threat to international stability and (4) addressable through a concerted global response. By reviewing the population control movement and the past, present and possible future of the AIDS response, we examine the evolution of the global crisis model and its consequences in shaping development priorities, problems and solutions. We argue that the model mobilises significant financial resources, but it skews the allocation of development assistance, creates narrow, technical interventions, and fails to examine or remedy the social inequalities that produce health and development disparities. © 2011 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Publication Title

Global Public Health

Publication Date

10-1-2011

Volume

6

Issue

SUPPL. 3

First Page

310

Last Page

322

ISSN

1744-1692

DOI

10.1080/17441692.2011.606428

Keywords

AIDS, development policy, global crisis, population control

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