HIV/AIDS and the Social Consequences of Untamed Biomedicine

This book makes a critical examination of how anthropological and other interpretative social science research has been utilized in the field of HIV/AIDS studies. It argues that most research uncritically addresses the epidemic in terms of the questions and the research methods favored by biomedicine, and that the failure to draw on high-quality qualitative anthropological and other social science research in the modeling of the epidemic and in the design and implementation of AIDS control interventions has rendered these less successful than they might otherwise have been.

Graham Fordham is a social anthropologist who has extensive experience researching the Thai and other Southeast Asian AIDS epidemics. He currently teaches in the College of Medicine, Biology and Environment at the Australian National University in Canberra.

1. Introduction: An Orientation 2. The Thai AIDS Epidemic and the Failure of Critical Analysis 3. Constructing Thailand's AIDS Epidemic with a "New" Social Science 4. Social Science, HIV/AIDS, Stigma and Discrimination 5. Biomedicine, Social Science Research and the Stigmatising of the AIDS Affected: New Perspectives from Structural Violence and Social Suffering 6. Thai AIDS Research: Structural Violence, Stigma, Discrimination, and Genocide-Like State Violence 7. Thailand's "Good" Response to the HIV/AIDS Epidemic: A Critical Examination 8. An Alternative Perspective on the Thai Response to AIDS Control 9. Conclusion. Postscript.