Transactional sex, consumer society, and neoliberalism in Uganda: A political economic analysis of drivers and models of response.

Transactional sex is a topic within HIV research that is relatively undertheorised and lacking consensus. In this study, it is understood as the implicit, non-marital, non-commercial exchange of sex for material goods or social status, and we examine the phenomenon among youth. Within the existing literature, the paradigms of sex-for-survival and sex-for-consumption emerge, representing differing senses of agency, particularly among young women. Based on interviews with human service providers in Kampala, Uganda, we consider the latter paradigm, examining how providers frame transactional sex against the political-economic backdrop of consumer culture, including the mainstreaming of communication technology in youths' lives. We also examine providers' depictions of available models of response, focused mainly on HIV prevention, in the context of international and national policies and politics. This study aims to situate analyses of transactional sex within political-economic context, considering how structural shifts toward neoliberalism have shaped both this phenomenon of behavioural health, and the existing models of response.