The demobilization and (re)mobilization of Brazils AIDS movement

• Grant number: 23/06704-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: October 23, 2023
• End date: October 22, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science
• Principal Investigator: Elize Massard da Fonseca
• Grantee: Helena de Moraes Achcar
• Supervisor: Lilian Mathieu
• Host Institution: Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo (EAESP). Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: École Normale Supérieure, Lyon (ENS), France
• Associated to the scholarship: 22/07849-0 - Civil society, the COVID-19 pandemic, and universal access to medicines in Brazil: building a better framework, BP.PD

Abstract

This is a research proposal for a fellowship to be conducted at Centre Max Weber (Lyon) for the period of a year. After extensive fieldwork and literature review, the fellowship will be essential to develop a new phase of my research, internationalize the results of my work and promote collaborations beyond this research project. The aim of the research is to offer an analysis and understanding of the process of demobilization of Brazil's AIDS movement. Starting in the 1980s, the AIDS movement was fundamental in guaranteeing universal access to antiretroviral treatment, representing one of the pillars of an internationally recognized national AIDS policy and an inspiration to other movements for universal access. However, since the 2010s, the movement has declined. Drawing on a Bourdieusian framework, and understanding the movement as a social field, I aim to fill the gap in the literature by investigating the dynamics that may explain demobilization within the movement, the movement's interactions with external changes in other fields (such as the re-biomedicalization of AIDS, the rise of conservative and religious ideas, and the election of far-right president Bolsonaro), and its dynamics with other movements. The analysis will also seek to understand how demobilization affected policymaking and the conditions of possibility for mobilization. Finally, I will draw broader implications to other movements that fight for universal access to treatment. (AU)