Identity and Audience: Living with HIV disease

Since the start of the AIDS epidemic, perhaps the majority of interventions to prevent HIV transmission, as well as numerous interventions to promote health and well-being among people living with HTV disease, have assumed a relatively unproblematic relationship between pedagogy, identity and the anticipated outcomes of health promotion intervention. This paper reviews what has been learned from such initiatives in relation to dominant constructions of the epidemic, and argues for the need to take account of a diverse range of subject positions and identities in future interventions for prevention and care. It highlights a number of areas in which those working internationally in the sociology of education can make a more sustained contribution to the analysis of AIDS-related cultural forms and identities, and to the development of more appropriate forms of pedagogy within health education and health promotion.