“…Theoretically positioned within the framework of the Subaltern Studies project (Beverly, 2004;Guha & Spivak, 1988;Spivak, 1988), the aim of this paper is to locate a subaltern consciousness at the heart of theorizing and practice regarding HIV/AIDS communication in sex worker spaces. Only a handful of studies in communication, specifically in health communication (see Basu & Dutta, 2008, 2009Dutta-Bergman, 2004a, b), are based on the Subaltern Studies framework, and this is the first empirical project to theorize communication, as a meaningmaking endeavor, from the standpoint of a foundational concept that straddles the Subaltern Studies project. Specifically, this paper uses ethnographic data to explain how an autonomous subaltern rationality influences and is vital to understanding the processes and outcomes of sense-making on health and HIV/AIDS in a sex worker community in the global south.…”