AIDS activism, communities and disagreements

Abstract

Using the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) as a case study, the author argues that this social Movement organization is going through a diversification process activists increasingly integrate the HIV/AIDS research establishment. Consensus about goals, beliefs and strategies is increasingly missing. However, instead of limiting the analysis to a case of "identity politics, typical of the news social movements, the author argues that some divisions among activists (especially those stemming from the definition of AIDS and how it should be researched) are actually helpful in better understanding the disease.