The Social Organization of Disease

Empirically, this book is a case-study analysis of dissolution processes in German AIDS organizations. Indeed, why is it that civic organizers start out with a commitment to a cause but end up dissolving their organization? This question is exactly what Kleres seeks to tackle within The Social Organization of Disease. Focusing on the emotional bases of dissolved German AIDS organizations to develop a typology of civic action and organizing, Kleres presents a perspective on non-profit organizations that analyses organizational development through the emotional sense making of individual organizers, within the light of larger political processes and cultural contexts. To this end, this volume develops and applies a new methodology for researching emotions empirically, expanding the scope of narrative analysis. However, parallel to this, The Social Organization of Disease also explores how shifting discursive processes establish emotional climates and thus impact on state policies and the evolution of AIDS organizing. The book would appeal to sociologists and political scientists working in the field of social movements and non-profit organisations: but it would also appeal to those who are interested in the sociology of emotions. It would potentially be of interest to non-profit scholars who consider community-based organizations, volunteerism and advocacy, and secondarily, to medical sociologists interested in AIDS service organizations. Sociology, International relations, Social Work, Political Science. May be of interest for NGO-activists and/or employees and leadership.

Jochen Kleres is a postdoctoral researcher at the Gothenburg Centre of Globalization and Development, at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

IntroductionConceptual ProblemsTheoretical ProblemsTheories of VolunteerismAdvances: Theories of Social MovementsConceptual Problems Revisited: Empowering DistinctionsA FrameworkStructure of the Book: On Studying Disbanded AIDS OrganizationsReferencesTowards a Political Sociology of AIDS Service OrganizationsA First Premise: The Social Construction of AIDSThe (Non-)Emergence of AIDS OrganizationsA Second Premise: The Evolution of Public HealthQueer CorporatismProfessionalization and its DiscontentsPower in the Field: The Field of AIDS OrganizingAIDS Service Organizations as Political and Discursive AgentsConclusion: AIDS Service Organizations as a Form of PowerReferencesAIDS Organizations in GermanyParallels: A Brief Note on the AIDS Discourse in GermanyThe Role of Identity: The Emergence of AIDS Relief OrganizationsThe Power of Discourse: The Evolution of AIDS Policies in GermanyThe Stakes of AIDS Organizing and of its Political InclusionThe Evolution and Transformation of AIDS ReliefThe Normalization of AIDSDifferences - The German Case in ContrastConclusionReferencesMaking Sense of Neo-Corporatism and Neo-InstitutionalismNeo-Corporatism - Principle ConsiderationsThe Rationalist Premises of Neo-CorporatismNeo-InstitutionalismKey Assumptions of Neo-InstitutionalismNeo-Institutionalism and Social ChangeThe Sensemaking ApproachSensemaking: The Process of OrganizingSeven Characteristics and Some Sources of SensemakingConclusionReferencesSensemaking, Narrative Analysis, and EmotionsNarrative Methodology and AnalysisConvergences: Sen