Andrew Dalton

Cutting the Ribbon? Austerity Measures and the Problems Faced by the HIV Third Sector

This chapter draws on a mixed methods approach to explore the current health of UK HIV organisations. Austerity funding cuts are argued to have been enabled because of the medicalisation of HIV: new treatments and vaccines ‘explain’ cuts in prevention, support and in addressing stigma. The results reveal a struggling sector operating on a ‘survival agenda,’ whereby support services are being withdrawn, organisations are using their reserves and redundancies are being made amongst an increased demand by new and existing service users. Bourdieu and Wacquant’s (An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology, Polity, Cambridge, 1992) notion of ‘symbolic violence’ is used to make sense of these findings and reflect on how cuts have become easier to enact because of a growing belief that HIV is no longer a social but a medical problem.