What should academics do about conspiracy theories? Moving beyond debunking to better deal with conspiratorial movements, misinformation and post-truth

Grodzicka, Elżbieta Drążkiewicz; Harambam, Jaron

doi:10.1080/14797585.2021.1886420

Cited by 23 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…My own research on conspiracy theories has heavily influenced by this anti-normative stand and anthropological studies of vaccine acceptability (Drążkiewicz and Harambam 2021). After discussing conflicts over the HPV vaccine with people on both sides of the divide as well as following their presence in media and bureaucratic sphere, I came to the conclusion that a big part of the problem was not simply knowledge deficiency but a trust deficiency (Drążkiewicz 2021).…”

Section: Sitting On the Fence And Falling Downmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2023). Since then, scholars, NGO leaders and policy makers concerned with the damaging influence of conspiracy theories on democratic space argue that conspiracy theories have to be acted upon: defused, debunked, countered (Betsch and Sachse 2013;Drążkiewicz and Harambam 2021;Dunbar et al 2011;Leonard and Philippe 2021;van Prooijen 2021).…”

Section: Are You With Us or Against Us? | Aiamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Are You with Us or Against Us?

Drążkiewicz¹

2023

Anthropology in Action

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When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, two contrasting images quickly became representative of the crisis. On the one hand, there were heroic doctors working day and night with the novel virus, risking their lives and making sacrifices to save others. On the other, there were ‘anti-maskers’ and ‘anti-vaxxers’: people doubting if the virus is real, questioning the effectiveness of protective measures, suspicious that the crisis is nothing more than an elaborate plot, a scam aimed to redesign their world and to destroy the values they hold dear. Reflecting on research conducted in Ireland with people separated by the conspiratorial divide, this paper examines some methodological and analytical challenges of doing simultaneous research with opposing stakeholders. Analysing my own entanglements in the conflicts over vaccines and conspiracy theories in this paper I argue that the pandemic was not just a battle to secure the acceptability of specific medical technology (the COVID-19 vaccine) but was also about safeguarding respectability of science and maintaining the rule of experts. It was about preventing ontological turn, the end of the era of reason, a dawn of modernity.

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Section: Sitting On the Fence And Falling Downmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Are You With Us or Against Us? | Aiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Are You with Us or Against Us?

Drążkiewicz¹

2023

Anthropology in Action

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“…The introduction to a recent special issue of the Journal for Cultural Research edited by Elżbieta Drążkiewicz Grodzicka and Jaron Harambam (2021) was titled: "What should academics do about conspiracy theories?" The purpose of the present article resonates with that special issue and revises the question for the field of political sociology to ask: "What should social movement scholars do about conspiracy theories?…”

Section: The Reasons For An Absence Of Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conspiracy theories and social movements studies: A research agenda

Bertuzzi

2021

Sociology Compass

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It is surprising to note the scarcity of contributions in social movement literature related to so‐called conspiracy theories. A considerable amount of the work on these topics has been produced in political science, history, media studies, social psychology and other disciplines. These accounts have often adopted a stigmatizing approach, looking at conspiracy theories as forms of pathologies (whether psychological, social or political). Moving from such a perspective to a constructivist one, I argue that conspiracy theories should represent an object of interest for social movement scholars: conspiracies supporters go into the streets to highlight their issues, protest against authority, propose alternative lifestyles and often claim to look for a better/different society. Applying the social movements toolkit can allow to better understand this phenomenon and apply critical perspectives in a more effective manner. On the basis of this premise, the first part of this article reviews the existing literature on conspiracy theories, also identifying the main lacunae; the second part outlines some possible research questions and lines of inquiry, moving beyond the classical theories in the field of social movement studies. The paper also introduces a number of new concepts, such as conspiracy mobilizations and conspiracy coalitions.

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“…However, questions very often linger: why do people believe in rumours and conspiracy theories, and what could be done about it? Or how should academics deal with misinformation, post-truth or conspiracy theories (Grodzicka, Harambam, 2021)? Much research has focused not only on the ways in which powerful actors attempt to debunk rumours and conspiracy theories but also how they fail in such attempts, disregarding the existing knowledge within local communities where rumours or conspiracy theories flourish.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Doubting the Malagasy Remedy. Rumours and Suspicion During COVID-19 in Madagascar

Ilieva¹

2022

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Aer the world came into the grip of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Madagascar suddenly moved into the spotlight of global media attention. Backed up by low incident rates and no deaths, the president of Madagascar announced in April that local scientists had found a cure for COVID-19. During a TV broadcast, he sipped from a bottle dubbed Covid-Organics (CVO) and heralded the herbal concoction as a remedy for the global crisis. e World Health Organization (WHO), however, reacted with scepticism and cautioned against the drink because no evidence of its effectiveness had been proven. e announcement of CVO and the response of the WHO sparked new hearsay in Madagascar and on social media alike. Some focused on the marginalisation and exploitation of Africa by global health organisations. Others assumed hidden intentions of the Malagasy government. Many buzzes questioned the ingredients of the herbal drink or that CVO was just another political stage act with a hidden agenda. This article takes rumours about conspiracies and other hidden schemes about CVO as a starting point to scrutinize how Malagasy debunk a state-inflicted infodemic. I argue that these narratives are not about an epistemic void that needs to be filled but, instead, about knowing too much about an ongoing drama to take a single, even hopeful, political act at face value. More specifically, I engage with suspicion as the driving force to decipher political acts as manipulative populism. Rumours and conspiracy theories are part of everyday discourses in Madagascar, and the challenges of navigating fact and fiction became a habitual practice that highlights the normalisation of socio-economic crises over the last five decades.

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What should academics do about conspiracy theories? Moving beyond debunking to better deal with conspiratorial movements, misinformation and post-truth

Cited by 23 publications

References 30 publications

Are You with Us or Against Us?

Are You with Us or Against Us?

Conspiracy theories and social movements studies: A research agenda

Doubting the Malagasy Remedy. Rumours and Suspicion During COVID-19 in Madagascar

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