In the era of biomedicine, how does the political nature of health social movements emerge? The perspectives of popular epidemiology and the embodied health movement indicate that when medical authorities ignore the experiences of ordinary people, the embodied experiences of the public become the foundation for politicized collective disease identities. However, this view tends to see technological medicine and bodily experience as oppositional or separate. On the other hand, the perspective inspired by actor-network theory argues that medical and technological research has driven new ontologies of disease, disease identity, and political effects. Yet, this viewpoint has seldom explored how the technological practices of ordinary people diversely stimulate the ontology of disease, identity, and politicality.

This research takes recent examples from four HIV movements in Taiwan (tentatively called the rights movement for people living with HIV, sexual health movement, movement for the visibility of people living with HIV, and scientific evidence movement) to examine the intricate interrelationships between disease, body, technology, gender/sexuality, and politics within the context of global biomedicalization. This study does not view the body in the HIV movement as an abstract or fixed entity; rather, it investigates how diverse social and technological practices enact and transform the bodies that are ill and marginalized, thus shaping their political nature. Over the course of three years, this research will explore the relationships among non-governmental organizations, medical professionals, government agencies, and multinational science within these HIV movements. In terms of contributions, the cases from Taiwan's HIV movements will help bridge theoretical gaps in existing health social movement research, which sees disease, technology, and politicality as belonging to different categories. Practically, this research will also contribute to promoting the inclusion of diverse bodies and disease ontologies in national policy practices.