Performative pedagogy: Poststructural theory as a tool to engage in identity work within a youth-led HIV prevention program

Abstract

This chapter discusses the use of poststructural theory as a way to inform identity work within a youth-led HIV prevention program in Asia, entitled NewGen. Many HIV prevention programs which serve those “at risk” focus on changing the behaviors that are deemed to put the individual at risk; however, this places a disproportionate focus on individual rather than sociocultural explanations and can inadvertently lead to stigmatization and exclusion. Using a logic of change informed by a poststructuralist understanding of identity opens the space to create a different kind of program, one in which the emphasis is on a repositioning from victim to leader. A poststructural focus on positioning an..