It is nearly 30 years ago that the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic officially started. In 2008 an estimated total of 33.4 million people lived worldwide with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS. Despite the fact that there is still no cure or vaccine for the HIV virus, important progress has been achieved in treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) since the mid-1990s, when Highly-Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) was introduced. HAART

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... has proved successful in reducing AIDS-related morbidity and mortality and, therefore, prolonging the life expectancy of PLWHA. In Western democracies such as Australia, HIV/AIDS is considered as a chronic disease that can be managed by most people with the help of regular medical monitoring, adherence to treatment, and access to medical care. The substantial clinical changes observed since the introduction of HAART open a series of important questions regarding the quality of life of PLWHA. The current quality of life research on PLWHA consist primarily of health related quality of life studies (HRQOL), which investigate the subjective perceptions of PLWHA regarding the impact of their health status, disease, impairment, disability, or treatment primarily on their physical, mental/cognitive, and social functioning. This type of study has received several criticisms, for example the fact of confusing quality of life with perceived health. Another important limit of HRQOL studies is that they focus on PLWHA as patients or clinical cases, rather than as social actors with individual, social and economic rights experiencing freedoms and constraints to fulfil valued social roles and achieve desired social statuses. Lack of research on the experiences of PLWHA as social actors is regrettable because it would offer social scientists and social policy makers relevant information to identify health and social inequalities among PLWHA and to generate a broader and more insightful understanding of their quality of life. This thesis [...]