AIDS Activism in the Age of ARV Treatment in South Africa: Christianity, Resource Mobilisation and the Meanings of Engagement

This article explores the dynamics of Christian AIDS activism in South Africa. Using social movement theory's approaches to resource mobilisation, I ask how the availability of different kinds of resources affects organisation and outcomes. Focusing on several Christian activist groups in Cape Town, and on the cultural logics whereby activist networks are extended into rural areas, I argue that resource mobilisation takes on different configurations and rationalities when conjugated with the prevailing system of relationships of patronage and dependency between activist groups and donors. By illustrating the way in which AIDS activism has spilled over into the religious domain in South Africa, I also highlight how, in the process, this activism and the projects it initiated have reshaped Christianity as a public religion.