Politics in the Corridor of Dying: AIDS Activism and Global Health Governance by Jennifer Chan (review)

In Politics in the Corridor of Dying, author Jennifer Chan documents wide-ranging international efforts of patient-focused global AIDS activism and the impacts of activism on the treatment of the disease. Chan, a political sociologist, describes the book as a "sociopolitical study of AIDS activism since the 1980s," in which she uses research and interviews to identify the "technology of social repression" (7, 11). As an aid to the reader, the book includes a comprehensive list of common abbreviations related to AIDS activism and care. The subtitle of the book defines its focus as AIDS, but information throughout the book covers both AIDS and HIV/AIDS.

Chan conducted more than 100 interviews in eighteen countries for this study. Interviewees represent a wide range of backgrounds and cover the time period from the early 1980s, with its proliferation of pioneering AIDS service organizations (ASOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs), many of them volunteer-led, through the transition to professional legal, medical, and AIDS research networks in the 1990s and the treatment advocacy and intellectual property (IP)-focused networks in the 2000s. Analysis of the interviews led to identification of what Chan calls the "four contemporary regimes of power"—scientific monopoly, market fundamentalism, statist governance, and community control. Throughout the book, Chan discusses AIDS activism as a major force in leading the global fight against the epidemic. She not only recognizes the importance of the fight but, through use of interviews, documents the role, impact, and limitations of activism.

The book is organized around a study of advocacy and activism in each regime of power. After the introduction, the chapters are "Against Science and the Stigmatization of the At-Risk Body," "Against Pharma and the Intellectual Propertization of Life," "Against Governance and the Oligopolization of Power," and "Against Community and the Expertization of Activism." The book ends with a chapter summarizing the author's conclusions about AIDS activism and its impact on public policy

As is clear from the chapter titles, Chan focuses on the role of AIDS activism against the regimes of power. Rather than looking at the differences between governments and cultures in this fight, drawing on her research and information in the interviews, she identifies and documents actions that serve as unifying forces. For example, in an analysis of the impact of the fight against both AIDS-affected people and those who are vulnerable to infection, she cites a variety of actions focusing on nondiscrimination and decriminalization of HIV/AIDS by the Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health, the International Harm Reduction Program, the Eurasian Harm Reduction Program, the Global Network of Sex Work Projects, the Lawyers Collective (India), and the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, among others. This broad international scope provides depth to the analysis she presents in each of the book's chapters.

Throughout the book, the author emphasizes points about the status and work of international AIDS activism. In the first chapter, "Science and Stigmatization," Chan discusses science and the stigmatization that often is associated with AIDS. In doing so, she defines what she calls a "false debate" between public health and human rights issues that resulted in laws criminalizing AIDS without supporting risk reduction. She follows this with a discussion of AIDS-related human rights issues, beginning with a question: Can the stigmatized and criminalized body speak? She answers: The insistence of the AIDS body to be heard marked a human rights turn in the epidemic. The chapter includes a discussion of nondiscrimination and decriminalization and the role of activists in expanding an understanding of human rights issues from those AIDS affected to those at risk for infection. Taking the discussion further, in a section of the chapter focusing on the impacts of treatment literacy and access to treatment, she describes the importance of access to education in fighting for and receiving effective treatment. Chan ends the chapter with a discussion about maintaining...