Perverts, Inverts and Experts: The Cultural Production of an AIDS Research Paradigm (From AIDS: Social Representations, Social Practices, P 74-100, 1989, Peter Aggleton, Graham Hart, et al, eds. -- See NCJ-130840)

• NCJ Number: 130845
• Author(s): M Horton; P Aggleton
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 27 pages
• Sale Source: Taylor & Francis Inc.
• Publication Type: Conference Material
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom
• Note: Paper presented at the Second United Kingdom Conference on Social Aspects of AIDS, 1987, London

Annotation

The AIDS research paradigm is viewed as a set of assumptions about the nature and etiology of AIDS that frames the questions many scientific, medical, and social researchers ask about the disease.

Abstract

Over the past 3 years, what amounts to a consensus view on AIDS has been constructed that has its etiology in the dominant biomedical paradigm of germ theory. Even though AIDS epidemiology was initially modeled on Hepatitis B, it was not characterized as a viral disease but rather as a sexually transmitted disease. The taxonomic identification of AIDS as a sexual disease has profoundly affected popular perceptions of the syndrome and the manner in which people with AIDS are represented. In addition, the contemporary AIDS research paradigm has been imbued with assumptions about the nature and quality of male homosexual desires and practices. Cultural values operate within the medical model to influence the modern research agenda of AIDS. It is suggested that the AIDS concept be viewed as a biosocial event and as the product of complex social and historical forces. 29 references, 14 notes, and 1 figure