The Obscure Politics of Conspiracy Theory

Featherstone, Mark

doi:10.1111/j.1467-954x.2000.tb03519.x

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Another particular element of conspiracy theories is their ability to re-enchant the world. Since Weber (1948) has posited the disenchantment of the world, numerous of postmodern intellectuals, sociologists, and philosophers have argued that the contemporary world produces this inherent need to be re-enchanted to face work alienation, objectification of people, and a general sense of loss of meaning (Featherstone, 2000). As the fantasy novels can be an escape from this reality, the narrative's fantasy aspect of CTs throw on the complexity of our social environment, on the threats it implies, a fictional story that shapes a new world, more delightful, paradoxically sometimes more threatening, but with additional meaning and perceived control because it results from a collective creative process.…”

Section: The Value Of Conspiracy Theoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Creativity of Conspiracy Theories

Bonetto

Arciszewski

2021

Journal of Creative Behavior

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Conspiracy theories are narratives, they tell mostly fictional stories. In that sense, conspiracy theories are creative productions similar to other productions involving narratives, such as poems, films, or stories. However, contrary to these productions regularly studied in the field of creativity, conspiracy theories remain unexplored in this field. The present contribution proposes to consider conspiracy narratives as creative products. We discuss the extent to which these narratives meet the criteria of the standard definition of creativity and how their negative individual and societal consequences place conspiracy narratives in the dark side of creativity. We argue that this new perspective on conspiracies may partly change the way we study their construction and their psychological convenience. We finally discuss some theoretical and methodological perspectives linked to this proposition. Overall, this contribution intends to draw the attention of creativity researchers to these real-world and abundant creative products.

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Section: The Value Of Conspiracy Theoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Creativity of Conspiracy Theories

Bonetto

Arciszewski

2021

Journal of Creative Behavior

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“…The belief in conspiracy theories is not of course confined to Muslims in Bangladesh, or even to the US far right (see, for example, Goertzel 1994;Waters 1997;Featherstone 2001;Spark 2001). We are all of us living in a world in which conspiracy theory offers a constant temptation.…”

Section: Analysis and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Contesting science for Islam: the media as a source of revisionist knowledge in the lives of young Bangladeshis

Samuel

Rozario

2010

Contemporary South Asia

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“…Zack 1999). If proponents prove that Western epistemology "incubated" whiteness and then predicated it on the racial ruling, cultural denigration, and physical decimation of nonwhites, then they could lay claim to both a new sociology of race relations and the moral high ground (Featherstone 2001;Leonardo 2002;Rabaka 2007). …”

Section: The Problematic Nature Of Whiteness Studies: Propounding Pubmentioning

confidence: 98%

Public Sociology or Partisan Sociology? The Curious Case of Whiteness Studies

Niemonen

2010

Am Soc

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This paper identifies the common themes in 245-plus refereed articles on whiteness studies that were published in academic journals after 1992 in an attempt to assess the implications of whiteness studies for the discipline of sociology. Of special interest is the relationship between whiteness studies and Michael Burawoy's call for public sociology. I argue that the emerging field of whiteness studies identifies itself as a public sociology that is infused by the moral vision of critical sociology. Nevertheless, the field does not accept professional sociology as Burawoy defined it. The ontological, epistemological, and soteriological foundations of whiteness studies encourage the field to pander to one segment of the public-the marginalized-and condemn another segment of the public-"privileged whites," thus rendering impossible a democratic dialogue on one of the most basic social issues of our time. Conflating Western epistemology with whiteness encourages a misreading of American social scientific work on race relations, thus opening the door to a so-called hermeneutics of suspicion. The result is not an innocuous "pop" sociology, but a partisan sociology, whose implications should caution sociologists against an uncritical embracing of public sociology.

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The Obscure Politics of Conspiracy Theory

Cited by 8 publications

References 5 publications

The Creativity of Conspiracy Theories

The Creativity of Conspiracy Theories

Contesting science for Islam: the media as a source of revisionist knowledge in the lives of young Bangladeshis

Public Sociology or Partisan Sociology? The Curious Case of Whiteness Studies

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