Where does it stop being activism? Voluntary action, paid work and the constellation of HIV/AIDS activism in England
Responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic took many forms. Some of these are easily categorised as activism, whilst others seem to fit this mould less comfortably. This paper examines 'activist identities' and the ways in which voluntary action was used in order to make sense of (and buy into) such categories during the HIV/AIDS crisis. By examining forms of voluntary action in comparison to paid employment, this paper points to the diverse ways in which ‘ordinary people’ were able to manifest their activist desires to affect change by volunteering their time and labour. From plumbers working for free in the homes of people living with HIV, to unpaid volunteers staffing HIV/AIDS charities, the paper introduces an array of what I argue were meaningful and powerful forms of HIV/AIDS activism.
Dr George Severs is a Postdoctoral Researcher on the RE:SHARE project at the Graduate Institute of Geneva, and an Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London in the School of Historical Studies. His most recent book, Radical Acts: HIV/AIDs Activism in Late Twentieth-Century England was published in 2024.
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This page was last updated on 14 March 2025
