Managing a Plague: Channelling the ‘Spread’ of AIDS Research

An analysis in Sociological Abstracts of the scientific literature published on AIDS between 1983 and 1990 showed that in the US and the UK the epidemic was politically managed by the Reagan administration and the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. Sociological research on AIDS in France and Germany, however, did not shy away from the central themes of sexuality and sexual behaviour. The analysis shows as well that two types of author-researchers exist in competition for funding with one another - the ‘heavyweights’ and the ‘artists’. Scientific journals have also been ‘stagemanaged’ with respect to the AIDS epidemic, and few new journals launched during the period, dedicated to AIDS research, are still being published.