ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we w i l l examine the emergence o f what can loosely be called an AIDS research paradigm — a set o f taken-for-granted assumptions concerning the nature and etiology o f AIDS that frames the questions many scientific, medical and social researchers currently ask. In order to do this, we w i l l begin by presenting a typical reading o f the phenomenon o f AIDS as it is likely to be encountered in the ever growing literature on the subject. This has been generated from an analysis o f published serious works on AIDS (as opposed to newspaper articles) and is really a pastiche o f that position.1
