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This paper is concered with how the application of narrative analysis and participatory policy analysis can broaden our understanding of social movement activism in the field of health. Drawing on comparative case studies of citizen contestation in the health field in Canada and the United States, I examine how health social movement actors have sought to influence policy and discourse in the health field using, in part, their "situated knowledge" of living with a disease. Three case studies are being explored: (1) multiple chemical sensitivity; (2) asthma; (3) autism. While cross-national studies in comparative health policy have taught us much about the shape of the health care system (public or private), the role of institutions in shaping policy outcomes, and the influence of elite interests such as physicians, these approaches have paid less attention to the role of non-state actors, other than elites. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with social movement activists in a number of Canadian and American cities, I am interested in how the boundaries demarcating experts from non experts are increasingly being disrupted, as patients acquire and exchange information, and contest, perhaps unwittingly, medical and scientific authority. An approach centered on eliciting the narratives constructed by health social movements allows us to explore how such actors advance their own expert knowledges in the face of biomedicine. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is difficult to imagine a more politicized public health issue than HIV/AIDS. The disease has had a profound impact on local and global economies, and spawned major social movements. However, in political science, HIV/AIDS has rarely been addressed. In fact, comparative politics has surprisingly little to say about politics of health and human development. Extant literature focuses on health spending in industrialized countries and tells us little about quality of policy. Recently, a number of researchers have formulated arguments which link provision of health services to the type of political regime, that is, to whether a country has a democratic government or not. (Baum and Lake 2001, Zwifel and Navia 2002) Building upon micro-economic theory, Baum and Lake argue that leaders who compete to remain in government need to provide services for their citizens to gain their votes. Non-democratic governments do not have such incentives. Following this recent scholarship, we would expect that democracies have developed better policy to fight HIV/AIDS that non-democracies.This paper uses quantitative methods to examine the relationship between regime type and quality of HIV/AIDS policy. Regression models are used to assess the impact of the regime type (democracy of autocracy) on the HIV/AIDS policy measures developed by UNAIDS. This analysis demonstrates that type of regime does not significantly impact the quality of policy in any of the areas for which measures are available. An alternative explanation of cross-national differences in HIV/AIDS policy is proposed, emphasizing policy diffusion processes and pressures from international donors. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social movements galvanized around public health and environmental issues often face significant scrutiny if they lack the support of established scientists and academics. The case of asbestos has provided, and continues to provide, an excellent example of the importance of creating linkages in order to influence policy-making in these areas at the local, domestic, and international levels. The academic community left to its own devices has often failed to recognize the socioeconomic and psychosocial dimensions of asbestos dieases. While activists are easily targeted for their lack of technical knowledge and are accused of hyper-sentimentality and emotionalism. In the case of international asbestos policy, the marriage of these two often disparate realms has been crucial for effecting positive policy outcomes. But this marriage has not always been a happy one. Using asbestos as a case study, this paper outlines the various components necessary for the effective linking of civil society and academia. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]