University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee College of Nursing, P.O. Box 413, Milwaukee, WI 53201, USA.
Qual Health Res. 2010 May;20(5):684-96. doi: 10.1177/1049732309354283. Epub 2009 Nov 19.
This article is based on a critical ethnography about HIV and gender-based issues of power and violence conducted in Malawi in 2008. In all, 72 women living with HIV were recruited from four antiretroviral treatment clinics, three rural and one urban, to participate in 12 focus groups. Informed by a postcolonial feminist perspective, we analyze the process and products of these focus groups to interrogate their capacity to facilitate collective engagement with the social and structural realities confronting women in a resource-limited, highly AIDS-affected country. We present exemplars to show how women together created collective narratives to mobilize individuals to action. Findings indicate that focus groups can be used innovatively to benefit both the research and the participants, not only as a critical method of inquiry with marginalized groups but also as a forum in which validating dialogue, mutual support, and exchange of strategic information can generate transformative change to improve women's lives.
这篇文章基于 2008 年在马拉维进行的一项关于艾滋病毒和基于性别的权力和暴力问题的批判性民族志研究。共有 72 名感染艾滋病毒的妇女从四个抗逆转录病毒治疗诊所（三个农村和一个城市）招募，参加了 12 个焦点小组。我们根据后殖民女性主义视角，分析这些焦点小组的过程和成果，以质疑它们在资源有限、受艾滋病高度影响的国家中促进与妇女面临的社会和结构现实进行集体接触的能力。我们提供了范例来说明妇女如何共同创造集体叙事来动员个人采取行动。研究结果表明，焦点小组可以创新地用于造福研究和参与者，不仅可以作为边缘化群体的批判性研究方法，还可以作为一个论坛，在这个论坛上，验证性对话、相互支持和战略信息交流可以产生变革性的变化，以改善妇女的生活。
