Contemporary conspiracy culture : truth and knowledge in an era of epistemic instability

Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of figures
List of abbreviations
1. Introduction
	1.1 Conspiracy theories everywhere?
		1.1.1 A golden age of conspiracy theories?
	1.2 Academics on conspiracy theories: stigmatization and
normalization
		1.2.1 The pathological Other: bad science + paranoid
politics = societal danger
		1.2.2 What is wrong with conspiracy theories as the
pathological Other?
		1.2.3 The normal Other: making sense in/of a complex
world
	1.3 A cultural sociological approach: meaning, diversity and
relationality
		1.3.1 Move no. 1: from pathologizing conspiracy theories
towards exploring their meaning
		1.3.2 Move no. 2: from uniformity towards diversity in
conspiracy culture
		1.3.3 Move no. 3: from an isolated towards a relational
understanding of conspiracy culture
	1.4 Outline of the book
2. Methodology: Studying the Dutch conspiracy milieu
	2.1 Introduction
	2.2 The field
	2.3 The sources
		2.3.1 Websites
		2.3.2 Social movements and organizations
		2.3.3 Performances and documentaries
		2.3.4 People
	2.4 The analyses
3. Contemporary conspiracy discourses: How a power elite controls the world
	3.1 Introduction
		3.1.1 Modern conspiracy theories: scapegoating an exotic
Other
		3.1.2 Postmodern paranoia: enemies from within
	3.2 Conspiracy theories today
		3.2.1 Modern finance: the biggest scam in the history of
mankind
		3.2.2 The media masters: monotony, manipulation and mind
control
		3.2.3 Big bad business and the rise of the corporatocracy
		3.2.4 Corrupted science: financial pollution and the
suppression of dissidence
		3.2.5 Greedy states and the invisible government: “Orwell,
Eat Your Heart Out!”
		3.2.6 Exploring the supernatural: aliens and higher states of
consciousness
	3.3 Conclusion: modern conspiracy theories or postmodern
paranoia?
4. From the unbelievable to the undeniable: Epistemological pluralism, or how David Icke supports his super-conspiracy theory
	4.1 Introduction
	4.2 Claiming epistemic authority
	4.3 Method, data, analysis
	4.4 “The day that will change your life”: David Icke in
Amsterdam
		4.4.1 “Just following the clues”: appealing to experience
		4.4.2 “All across the ancient world”: appealing to
tradition
		4.4.3 “Living in the cosmic internet”: appealing to futuristic
imageries
		4.4.4 “What scientists are saying”: appealing to science
		4.4.5 “The incessant centralization of power”: appealing to
(critical) social theory
	4.5 Conclusion
5. Breaking out of the Matrix: How people explain their biographical turn to conspiracy theories
	5.1 Introduction
	5.2 Biographies in context: on the fundamental connectedness of
individual lives and societal developments
	5.3 Beyond the social logic of awakenings: turning to the richness
of life stories
		5.3.1 Secularization: looking for meaning and purpose in a
disenchanted world
		5.3.2 Mediatization: grappling with fact and fiction in a
mediatized world
		5.3.3 Democratization: education and the cultivation of a
critical citizenry
		5.3.4 Globalization: experiencing truth and reality in a
shrinking world
	5.4 Conclusion
6. “I am not a conspiracy theorist”
	6.1 Introduction
	6.2 Identification: similarity and difference
	6.3 Re-claiming rationality: “I am not a conspiracy theorist”
		6.3.1 Activists: “Get off your knees!”
		6.3.2 Standing on the barricades?
		6.3.3 Retreaters: “Be the change you want to see in the
world!”
		6.3.4 Mediators: “Start building bridges!”
		6.3.5 Corresponding epistemological positions, oppositional
ideas about truth
	6.4 Conclusion
7. Contesting epistemic authority: Conspiracy theorists on the boundaries of science
	7.1 Introduction
	7.2 Science and its boundaries
	7.3 Boundary work: construing conspiracy theories as modernity’s
dark counterpart
		7.3.1 Secular remnants of a religious past
		7.3.2 Protecting the boundaries of science
	7.4 Challengingtheepistemicauthorityofscience:anattackonits
publicimage
		7.4.1 Critiqueno.1:Skepticism?Whataboutthedogmasof
modernscience?
		7.4.2 Critiqueno.2:Objectivity?Whataboutthepollution
of scientific knowledge?
		7.4.3 Critiqueno.3:Equality?Whatabouttheauthorityof
scientific experts?
		7.4.4 Apop-sociologicalcritiqueofthepublicimageof
science
	7.5 Conclusion:sciencewarsdemocratized
8. Conclusion
	8.1 Contested institutions: facing corruption, desiring
purification
	8.2 Contested knowledge: popular incredulity towards objective
truth claims
	8.3 Hermeneutics of suspicion: “Nothing is what it seems”
	8.4 Conspiracy culture: living in an age of epistemic
instability
9. Epilogue: Whose side am I on?
	9.1 The myth of the neutral sociologist
	9.2 Scene 1
	9.3 Scene 2
	9.4 Scene 3
	9.5 Conclusion: taking a stance without taking sides
Index