A01=Steven Epstein
aids
aids controversy
aids epidemic
aids movement
aids research
aids treatment
Author_Steven Epstein
azt
biomedical research
biomedicine
Category=JBFN
Category=JPQB
Category=MJCJ2
credibility struggles
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
hiv
lgbtqia
medical activism
medical history
medical research
medicine
physicians
policy
politics of causation
politics of interpretation
politics of knowledge
politics of treatment
retrovirus
science
scientific authority
scientific proof
social movements
sociology
surrogate markers
uncertainty
Product details
- ISBN 9780520214453
- Weight: 680g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 15 Sep 1998
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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In the short, turbulent history of AIDS research and treatment, the boundaries between scientist insiders and lay outsiders have been crisscrossed to a degree never before seen in medical history. Steven Epstein's astute and readable investigation focuses on the critical question of "how certainty is constructed or deconstructed," leading us through the views of medical researchers, activists, policy makers, and others to discover how knowledge about AIDS emerges out of what he calls "credibility struggles." Epstein shows the extent to which AIDS research has been a social and political phenomenon and how the AIDS movement has transformed biomedical research practices through its capacity to garner credibility by novel strategies. Epstein finds that nonscientist AIDS activists have gained enough of a voice in the scientific world to shape NIH--sponsored research to a remarkable extent. Because of the blurring of roles and responsibilities, the production of biomedical knowledge about AIDS does not, he says, follow the pathways common to science; indeed, AIDS research can only be understood as a field that is unusually broad, public, and contested.
He concludes by analyzing recent moves to democratize biomedicine, arguing that although AIDS activists have set the stage for new challenges to scientific authority, all social movements that seek to democratize expertise face unusual difficulties. Avoiding polemics and accusations, Epstein provides a benchmark account of the AIDS epidemic to date, one that will be as useful to activists, policy makers, and general readers as to sociologists, physicians, and scientists.
Steven Epstein is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego. The work on which this book is based won the American Sociological Association's award for best dissertation of the year.
