AIDS: The Intellectual Agenda (From AIDS: Social Representations, Social Practices, P 1-20, 1989, Peter Aggleton, Graham Hart, et al, eds. -- See NCJ-130840)

• NCJ Number: 130841
• Author(s): J Weeks
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 20 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 only way to understand the political and ethical implications of AIDS is to see the disease in a wider context of social change and social nonconformity.

Abstract

Social, medical, and political responses to AIDS are divided into three phases: the dawning crisis, 1981-1982; moral panic, 1982-1985; and crisis management, 1985 to the present. The AIDS agenda should move beyond crisis management toward a more rational and long-term strategy. Such a strategy should encompass historical, social science, political, social welfare, medical, moral, international, personal, and community issues. In the current crisis management phase, attention is being focused on symptoms rather than on fundamental causes. The challenge is to develop a rational response based on a realistic assessment of risk, a balanced understanding of the nature of AIDS and HIV infection, an awareness of the resources needed to deal with the problem, and the political and moral will to find and use resources. In many ways, AIDS is like other illnesses which devastate individual lives. What is remarkable about AIDS, however, is not simply its virulence but the weight of symbolic meaning that the disease carries. 32 references