[Biomedical-cybernetics] Complex systems tackle HIV epidemic in South Africa

[Guastello, Stephen]

Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences is pleased to  
announce the availability of a new open access article:
Community Viral Load Management: Can Attractors Contribute to  
Developing an Improved Bio-social Response to HIV Risk-reduction?  by  
Christopher J. Burman andMarota Aphane, University of Limpopo,  
Polokwane, South Africa

Abstract: This article reports on the first twelve months of a pilot  
study that was designed to improve community responses to HIV/AIDS in  
rural South Africa. The framework was designed to enable the  
modification of emergent attractor landscapes. Specifically, we report  
on the introduction of a primary probe; the secondary, community  
initiated probes and the attractors that emerged through the process.  
Probes were designed to stimulate frame changes amongst participants  
that would influence social practices.Attractors represent the  
empirically visible culmination of discrete patterns that influence  
the dynamic landscape. Managing or modifying these patterns, thus  
changing the landscape, including social practices, is the principle  
that underpins the framework. The findings were analysed using a  
qualitative methodology called causal layered analysis. Six attractors  
emerged that contribute to reducing the aggregate community viral  
load, and three attractors emerged that detract from that ambition.  
The first pilot has provided insights into improving the framework and  
has had an impact at multiple scales suggesting that the framework is  
a promising tool for engaging with the bio-social aspects of the  
contemporary epidemic.

Retrieve full text in PDF: https://www.societyforchaostheory.org/ndpls/indexes_citations/files/art2001-4LITE.pdf
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