Are You with Us or Against Us?

Drążkiewicz, Elżbieta

doi:10.3167/aia.2023.300102

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 55 publications

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“…16. As Drazkiewicz (2023) usefully points out, these processes of ossifi cation unfolded not only on the side of 'conspiracists', but also just as much among audiences embracing COVID-19 protection measures.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suspicion and Evidence

Pelkmans

2024

Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale

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How do people discern between truth and untruth? What characterises their engagements with evidence? Some progress in answering these huge questions can be made by exploring them in conditions of radical epistemic uncertainty, such as the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the virus’s behaviour was largely unknown and the efficacy of interventions unknowable. This article focuses on the workings of suspicion and its relationship with evidence, doing so by analysing conversations collected in a Facebook discussion group devoted to ‘Covid truth’. It argues that suspicion produces its own forms of falsification but has a contentious relationship with positive truth. By outlining the epistemic labour of self-avowed truth seekers, the article elucidates some of the mechanisms by which Covid conspiracy theories proliferated and explains why its partakers were convinced that they had a critical edge over the rest of us. Résumé: Comment les gens discernent-ils entre vérités et non-vérité ? Qu’est-ce qui caractérise leur recherche de la preuve ? Certains progrès dans la réponse à ces grandes questions ont pu être faites par leur exploration en contexte d’incertitude épistémique radicale, tel que celui des premiers mois de la pandémie, alors que le comportement du virus était encore largement inconnu et l’efficacité des interventions mise en œuvre encore largement inconnues. Cet article se concentre sur le travail de la suspicion et sa relation à la preuve, à travers l’analyse de conversations collectées sur un groupe de discussion Facebook consacré à « la vérité du Covid ». Il défend l’idée que la suspicion produit ses propres formes de falsification, mais a une relation passionnée avec la vérité positive. En dessinant les contours du travail épistémique des chercheurs auto-proclamés de vérité, cet article met au jour certains des mécanismes par lesquels les théories conspirationnistes du Covid ont proliféré et explique pourquoi ceux qui les ont en partage sont si persuadés d’avoir la lucidité critique qui fait défaut au reste d’entre nous.

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Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suspicion and Evidence

Pelkmans

2024

Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale

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The Corona Truth Wars: Epistemic Disputes and Societal Conflicts around a Pandemic—An Introduction to the Special Issue

Harambam,

Voss

2023

Minerva

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Ever since the start of the Corona pandemic, different and often conflicting views have emerged about the virus and how to appropriately deal with it. Such epistemic, societal, and economic criticisms, including those about government imposed measures, have often been dismissed as dangerous forms of conspiratorial disinformation that should be (and have been) excluded from the realm of reasonable political discussion. However, since these critiques of emerging hegemonic knowledge and policies often involve significant and complex questioning of epistemic and political claims, and since corresponding plausibilities change over time, such clear distinctions between correct knowledge and foolish, fraudulent, and/or dangerous, disinformation are not easy to draw. In fact, they can be considered political acts in these epistemic disputes over the pandemic. These conflicts, which we refer to as the “Corona Truth Wars,” are not just about knowledge, but have turned into societal conflicts and even outright identity wars that run through families, circles of friends, organizations, and entire societies. In this special issue, we illuminate these dynamics by bringing together a range of scholars who have been struck by the complexity of these controversies and their far-reaching social consequences. Far from understanding these controversies as simple dichotomies between truth and disinformation, or between disinterested science and manipulative politics, these scholars are interested in the various ways in which these dimensions are intertwined. Building on a long tradition of exploring (scientific) knowledge controversies, the six contributions to this special issue show how epistemic struggles over truth are not only fought in the realm of science, but increasingly manifest and interact in everyday politics, social media platforms, daily talk shows, and family dinners. The scholars brought together in this issue, with diverse disciplinary backgrounds and from different geographical regions (Denmark, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Israel), present their studies on the various epistemic and social conflicts that have emerged during the Corona pandemic of the last three years.

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Reclaiming agency against the new world order: Beyond the coping mechanism frame in conspiracy theory studies

van der Tak,

Harambam

2024

European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology

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Are You with Us or Against Us?

Cited by 6 publications

References 55 publications

Suspicion and Evidence

Suspicion and Evidence

The Corona Truth Wars: Epistemic Disputes and Societal Conflicts around a Pandemic—An Introduction to the Special Issue

Reclaiming agency against the new world order: Beyond the coping mechanism frame in conspiracy theory studies

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