The Politics of Knowledge Production in HIV/AIDS Research about Ontario's African, Caribbean, and Black Communities

HIV/AIDS science has long been a site of contestation by civil society actors. Early activists originating in the gay community affected the course of HIV/AIDS science by challenging the definition and treatment of the disease. However, little is known about the politicized efforts of other groups disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS, particularly Black communities, to mobilize and shape research about their communities. This thesis interrogates social relations and power in research about HIV/AIDS in Ontario's African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) population. Using Pierre Bourdieu's field theory, together with concepts from the sociology of science and race theory, I investigate tensions and struggles over the definition and production of ACB HIV/AIDS research. Through a review of research grants and 21 semi-structured interviews with actors engaged in research, I characterize the field of ACB HIV/AIDS research and explore the struggles therein. I also examine what is at stake in these struggles and their implications for the reproduction of, and resistance to, systems of domination. My findings indicate that the field of ACB HIV/AIDS research is composed of interlocking scientific disciplines and non-scientific domains. Struggles over the field's organizing principles are represented in the different stances that participants adopt concerning the legitimate definition of research. Some academic-based actors define HIV/AIDS research according to empiricist principles oriented toward technical control and prevention of disease. These serve to depoliticize science and defend scientific authority and the social order. Other actors, both academic- and community-based, depict HIV/AIDS research through a social justice lens focussed on the empowerment of the ACB population and improvement of its social position. Community-based ACB actors in particular resist the epistemic dominance of science and argue for the legitimacy of non-scientific actors as "knowers" of the ACB population, and research as a socio-political tool. These subversive strategies challenge scientific authority and threaten to disrupt the status quo. The findings suggest that ACB actors navigate between utilizing existing mechanisms of science and resisting the dominance of science in shaping knowledge about their lives. My research contributes to the sociology of science scholarship concerning the politics of knowledge, scientific boundary work, and health movements.Ph.D