New social movements in Canadian health domain : AIDS Saskatoon as a case study

Abstract

AIDS Saskatoon, considered as a health social movement, is the focus of this research. It uses notions of life-world, system and life-world colonization as well as the typology of politics introduced by Cohen and Arato to answer the questions:

• Why did AIDS Saskatoon emerge?

• Is AIDS Saskatoon a defensive or an offensive social movement?

The defensive movement’s action is directed inward to the lifeworld and civil society, while the offensive modes of movement activism directed outward to state and economic institutions. With regards to the first question, I argue AIDS Saskatoon was formed as a reaction to patterns of the colonization of the life-world of people living with HIV/AIDS. Relative to the second question AIDS Saskatoon is seen to be a creative response to the colonization process that takes an organizational form conducive to both defensive and offensive dimensions.

Data for this study were derived from ten qualitative interviews were conducted - five with individuals diagnosed HIV/AIDS positive, three with the AIDS Saskatoon administrative staff, and two with the founders of AIDS Saskatoon.