Transnational responses to AIDS and the global production of science: A case-study from Rio de Janeiro.
Item
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Title
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Transnational responses to AIDS and the global production of science: A case-study from Rio de Janeiro.
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Identifier
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AAI9630436
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identifier
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9630436
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Creator
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Bastos, Cristiana.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Vicent Crapanzano
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Date
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1996
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Anthropology, Cultural | History of Science | Sociology, Social Structure and Development | Health Sciences, Public Health
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Abstract
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AIDS challenged most assumptions about the medical defeat of infectious diseases. A global health problem replaced the traditional contrast between the epidemic-free developed world and the infectious diseases ridden developing countries. In the U.S., communities burdened with the impact of AIDS reacted to the absence of a medical cure by creating their own expert knowledge on prevention, support, drug development, clinical trials, and basic science. The interaction between this social movement and the scientific establishment generated new formulas for treatment and research. To implement action throughout the world, WHO created the Global Programme on AIDS. GPA's influence raised awareness about the social dimensions of AIDS and promoted alliances between the different social partners involved in the fight against the epidemic. With a transnational and transdisciplinary rhetoric, the agency built partnerships with local governments, non-governmental organizations, and research agencies. For a period, the movement lived an atmosphere of "health revolution.".;Asking whether these innovations might have a real impact in the global production of knowledge about AIDS, I conducted ethnographic research among medical, scientific and activist settings in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, chosen due to its well-connected albeit peripheral situation within the world system, plus its autonomous production of biomedical science with a strong component of infectious disease, social medicine, and epidemiology.;Research showed that during the period of 1989-90 networking and interdisciplinary efforts energized the action against AIDS in the local as in the global setting. However, after the replacement of WHO's revolutionary commitment by a more medicalized approach to AIDS, the efforts towards a major transformation declined worldwide. The social forces involved in the struggle became fragmented; the transnational alliances reproduced dependency in situations of scarce resources; knowledge flows followed hierarchical patterns; each discipline retreated to its specialty; overwhelming clinical demand competed with research. Some of the transformative ideas and the possible basis for a paradigm shift in immunology and infectious disease remain very close, yet on the side, of the field of AIDS.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
