ACT UP: A network’s resistance through constitutive rhetoric

Abstract

This paper examines the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), a non-governmental organization within the larger HIV/AIDS movement. ACT UP is examined through the lens of new social movement network theory (Atkinson, 2009). Using constitutive rhetoric (Charland, 1987), the narrative capacities of the rhetorical strategies that appear to be embodied on ACT UP’s Web site are reviewed. The impact that ACT UP has on health and social policy globally has wide reaching ramifications, making the current investigation into its rhetorical strategies viable and important. The findings suggest ACT UP employs constitutive rhetoric to affect a viable narrative capacity in its network.