Social Movements as Health-Educators

Abstract

Within the postmodern framework, the present article examines how social movements may function as health-educators. Using the case study of “ACT UP” (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), the article establishes the configuration of this social movement organization as the product of a coalition between various pedagogical influences emanating from previous social movements, including the pre-existing AIDS movement, the gay and lesbian movement, and the women's health movement. The gay and lesbian movement offered young AIDS activists a sophisticated critique of mainstream science, especially concerning its “normative” function; the women's health movement provided ideological and logistical tools to support reliance upon community infrastructures, and the pre-existing AIDS movement, itself beneficiary of the two previous movements, accomplished seminal work to control the epidemic upon which ACT UP could thrive.