Dissecting the social body: social inequality through AIDS counter-narratives

HIV/AIDS conspiracy theories constitute a loosely grouped set of meanings that share the notion of secret collusion among allied parties. This paper traces one woman’s etiological narrative of HIV/AIDS. Such embodied experience and cultural understanding when placed against the backdrop of current t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Public understanding of science (Bristol, England) England), 2011-07, Vol.20 (4), p.491-505
Main Author: Mackenzie, Sonja
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - etiology
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - psychology
AIDS
Anthropology, Cultural
Circulation
Communicable diseases
Conspiracy
Construction
Cultural factors
Discourse
Diseases
Emergence
Equality
Etiology
Exploration
Female
Health policy
History of medicine and histology
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus
Humans
Infectious diseases
Middle Aged
Narration
Narratives
Pandemics
Paranoid Disorders - psychology
Politics
Power
Prejudice
Prevention
Public domain
Public Health
Scientific Knowledge
Secrecy
Social behavior
Social Inequality
Sociology, Medical
Substance Abuse, Intravenous - complications
United States
United States of America
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Summary:HIV/AIDS conspiracy theories constitute a loosely grouped set of meanings that share the notion of secret collusion among allied parties. This paper traces one woman’s etiological narrative of HIV/AIDS. Such embodied experience and cultural understanding when placed against the backdrop of current thinking on the topic in the United States builds a new framework for understanding the emergence and circulation of HIV/AIDS conspiracy theories as “counter-narratives” employed by individuals and publics in the face of the AIDS pandemic. Such counter-narrative creates a rhetorical space for challenges to power through the articulation of oppositional ideas about dominant scientific knowledge. Without a critical exploration of HIV/AIDS conspiracy theories that examines their emergence and effects as a form of discourse circulating in the public domain, public health advocates will not be able to trace and respond to these narratives’ impact on HIV prevention efforts or consider their relevance for other emerging infectious diseases.
ISSN:0963-6625
1361-6609
DOI:10.1177/0963662510392297