In the wake of the AIDS pandemic, legions of organizations and compassionate individuals descended on Africa from faraway places to offer their help and save lives. A Fraught Embrace shows how the dreams of these altruists became entangled with complex institutional and human relationships. Ann Swidler and Susan Cotts Watkins vividly describe the often mismatched expectations and fantasies of those who seek to help, of the villagers who desperately seek help, and of the brokers on whom both Western altruists and impoverished villagers must rely.
Based on years of fieldwork in the heavily AIDS-affected country of Malawi, this powerful book digs into the sprawling AIDS enterprise and unravels the paradoxes of AIDS policy and practice. All who want to do good—from idealistic volunteers to world-weary development professionals—depend on brokers as guides, fixers, and cultural translators. These irreplaceable but frequently unseen local middlemen are the human connection between altruists’ dreams and the realities of global philanthropy.
The mutual misunderstandings among donors, brokers, and villagers—each with their own desires and moral imaginations—create all the drama of a romance: longing, exhilaration, disappointment, heartache, and sometimes an enduring connection. Personal stories, public scandals, and intersecting, sometimes clashing fantasies bring the lofty intentions of AIDS altruism firmly down to earth.
Swidler and Watkins ultimately argue that altruists could accomplish more good, not by seeking to transform African lives but by helping Africans achieve their own goals. A Fraught Embrace unveils the tangled relations of those involved in the collective struggle to contain an epidemic.
Awards and Recognition
- One of Foreign Affairs Best of Books 2017 – Africa / Malawi
- Winner of the 2018 Best Scholarly Book Award, Global and Transnational Section of the American Sociological Association
- Honorable Mention for the 2018 Outstanding Published Book Award, Altruism, Morality and Social Solidarity Section of the American Sociological Association
- Finalist for the 2018 Melville J. Herskovits Prize, African Studies Association
Ann Swidler is professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Organization Without Authority and Talk of Love, and the coauthor of Habits of the Heart and Inequality by Design. Susan Cotts Watkins is professor emerita of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and a Visiting Scholar at UCLA. She is the author of From Provinces into Nations and the coeditor of The Decline of Fertility in Europe.
"Few books can claim to address a social problem involving billions of dollars with millions of lives hanging in the balance, but Swidler and Watkins’s A Fraught Embrace does just that. Dissecting the role of foreign altruists and local brokers in aid efforts to stem the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa generally, and Malawi more specifically, this book makes a compelling sociological contribution to the study of foreign aid—a field of research more often reserved for economists and international development studies scholars."—Liam Swiss, American Journal of Sociology
"A concise, insightful work, and its contribution extends well beyond its immediate context of AIDS altruism in Malawi."—Brad Crofford, African Studies Quarterly
"A Fraught Embrace is both an important piece of transnational public sociology and one of the most important works in cultural sociology to have been published in a long while."—Iddo Tavory, European Journal of Sociology
"A Fraught Embrace presents an extraordinarily informative depiction of the links, intermediaries, and inconsistencies between the international development system and local Malawian villages, with the AIDS industry as the focal example. This book will greatly interest anyone concerned with the global-local contradictions in contemporary society."—John W. Meyer, Stanford University
"This splendid account of development aid explores how reality confronts donors' dreams of effective altruism and recipients' dreams of a better life. Swidler and Watkins show how a combination of ignorance, incomprehension, and conflicting aims brews the ‘working misunderstandings' behind an enterprise that suits everyone yet fails to meet its nominal purpose."—Angus Deaton, Nobel Laureate in Economics
"In this pioneering book, Swidler and Watkins draw on their vast Malawian experiences to throw an intense spotlight on external aid projects and the entangled relationships between donors and the local brokers and facilitators on whom donors are so reliant. Exceptionally insightful and sensitive, A Fraught Embrace succeeds brilliantly in upending our comfortable assumptions about ‘making a difference' in post-independence Africa. It deserves a place alongside the most inspired classics on the nature of altruism and exchange."—Caroline Bledsoe, Northwestern University
"Using a detailed study of the actions and reactions regarding AIDS in Malawi, this fantastic book describes essential features of the current system for delivering humanitarian assistance. Swidler and Watkins look at the role of brokers who connect international donors with beneficiaries, examine the altruists who operate within a moral universe that leads them to be out of touch, and offer a compelling takedown of common humanitarian cultural practices and notions of sustainability."—Lant Pritchett, Harvard Kennedy School
"A Fraught Embrace analyzes the organizational dynamics of the response to HIV/AIDS in Africa, focusing on the efforts of international and local groups to balance the fantasies of donors with the real needs of communities. Highlighting prevention campaigns in Malawi, the authors characterize organizational responses as erratic and uneven. This accessible and at times humorous book is essential reading for sociologists interested in the global AIDS industry."—Claire Decoteau, University of Illinois at Chicago
