PREFACE: Special issue on: HIV/AIDS risk in the fourth decade

摘要

In the fourth decade of HIV/AIDS, the concept of risk continues to be an essential component of HIV/AIDS service provision. Across many disciplines and perspectives, risk appears to be a concept with considerable use, importance, and relevance. Yet the critical reflection and construction of risk appear to be as elusive as the concept is popular. As Michael Power notes, "risk 'talk' [is] all around us" (Power, 2004, p. 9). Only somewhat recently have related health professionals published thoughtful inquiries into the construction, meaning, consequences, and implications of risk in medicine and other related heath fields (e.g., Chamberlain, 2015; Beyrer & Karim, 2013; Baral, Logie, Grosso, Wirtz, & Beyrer, 2013; Brennan et al., 2012). There appears to be no central definition of risk in the most recent entries in the Encyclopedia of Social Work, nor does there appear to have been a recent special issue or discussion of "risk" in U.S. social work journals. However, the British Journal of Social Work published a special issue on the concept of risk and social work in 2010 (Volume 40, Issue 4). Affirming the importance of the concept of risk, the editors suggested the special issue be used "neither to solve nor eliminate the problem of 'risk' in social work, but to stimulate critical and creative reflection and practice" (Warner and Sharland, 2010, pp. 1045). To this end, the current array of articles in this issue reflect our commitment to publish and share strong, salient research findings related to the notion and experience of risk in HIV/AIDS within the context of social work and social services. As readers of this issue will discover, the notion of risk is global, and essential for prevention, care, and treatment. The concept of risk also incorporates space, gender, race, class, place, time, and social, political, and economic contexts (Land & Prabhughate, 2012; Pellowski, Kalichman, Matthews, & Adler, 2013).