Meddling with Mythology examines the role of research in the construction of modern mythology or folklore surrounding HIV/AIDS.
Researchers from a variety of disciplines reflect on the insights gained and the impact of their work, in light of the initial panic surrounding the prediction of an AIDS epidemic.
Issues discussed include:-
* power
* representation
* the politics of text
* understanding research relationships
* impact of research on researchers and responders
* potential for change.
Meddling with Mythology takes the reader from the theoretical to the practicable and from the public to the personal in the representations of AIDS. The issues raised here also have great significance for those concerned with the social construction of knowledge, theory building and the research process more generally.

'Each of the parts in this collection provides both accessible but also penetrating insights into the often-unrecorded consequences for both researcher and researched of undertaking research in complex and unfolding arenas of experience and knowledge. It is a good and valuable book that provides another dimension to the history of the constructors of AIDS knowledges, and a useful example of the largely hidden face of research practice.' - Medical Sociology News: A Newsletter of the British Sociological Association December 1998

'Honest insights into the research process that books such as this provide should never be ignored.' - Kevin Williams, Health, Risk and Society

Rosaline S.Barbour is Senior Lecturer in Health Services Research at the University of Hull.,
Guro Huby is a Research Associate at the University of Edinburgh.