Movement, knowledge, emotion : gay activists and the Australian AIDS movement
type: CreativeWork
description: This thesis examines community activism around HIV/AIDS in Australia. Specifically, it looks at the role that the gay community played in the social, medical and political response to the virus. Drawing conclusions about the cultural impact of social movements, the thesis argues that AIDS activism contributed to improving social attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. It also concludes that AIDS activism challenged some entrenched cultural patterns of the medical system in Australia, allowing greater scope for non-medical intervention into the domain of health and illness. The thesis draws on a range of sources, including archival documents and indepth interviews, to create a narrative history of the development of AIDS activism. Drawing from social movement theory, the thesis looks at the structure and form of the 'AIDS movement' to explain how it mobilised as it did. The narrative history approach enables the study to detail the rise of the AIDS movement in historical context, exploring it as a product of the history of homosexual discrimination and marginalisation in Australia. The thesis also highlights the role that emotions such as fear, anger and trust/mistrust played in both motivating and framing movement action. While the thesis is a study of the impact of a social movement, it does not attempt to measure, in a positivistic sense, the tangible outcomes of the AIDS movement. Rather, it looks for shifts in cultural codes or new knowledges that were produced by movement action - what has been termed the 'hidden efficacy' of a social movement. This approach draws on the sociology of knowledge, looking at the way AIDS activists interjected new 'ways of knowing' into existing social discourses about homosexuality as well about as public health and medicine. Part one of the thesis is about the history of homosexuality in Australia and the rise of the AIDS movement. It also details the way in which the AIDS movement was able to influence public attitudes toward gay…
abstract: This thesis examines community activism around HIV/AIDS in Australia. Specifically, it looks at the role that the gay community played in the social, medical and political response to the virus. Drawing conclusions about the cultural impact of social movements, the thesis argues that AIDS activism contributed to improving social attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. It also concludes that AIDS activism challenged some entrenched cultural patterns of the medical system in Australia, allowing greater scope for non-medical intervention into the domain of health and illness. The thesis draws on a range of sources, including archival documents and indepth interviews, to create a narrative history of the development of AIDS activism. Drawing from social movement theory, the thesis looks at the structure and form of the 'AIDS movement' to explain how it mobilised as it did. The narrative history approach enables the study to detail the rise of the AIDS movement in historical context, exploring it as a product of the history of homosexual discrimination and marginalisation in Australia. The thesis also highlights the role that emotions such as fear, anger and trust/mistrust played in both motivating and framing movement action. While the thesis is a study of the impact of a social movement, it does not attempt to measure, in a positivistic sense, the tangible outcomes of the AIDS movement. Rather, it looks for shifts in cultural codes or new knowledges that were produced by movement action - what has been termed the 'hidden efficacy' of a social movement. This approach draws on the sociology of knowledge, looking at the way AIDS activists interjected new 'ways of knowing' into existing social discourses about homosexuality as well about as public health and medicine. Part one of the thesis is about the history of homosexuality in Australia and the rise of the AIDS movement. It also details the way in which the AIDS movement was able to influence public attitudes toward gay…
author: Power, Jennifer
language: en
date published: 2007
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:07:11Z
provider: Australian Catholic University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Australian Catholic University

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/1885/110387