Как се става конспиративен теоретик: Траектории на радикализация и професионализация в две групи от разследващи граждани
Become a Full-Time Conspiracy Theorist: Radicalization and Professionalization Trajectories of Two Citizen Sleuths Groups

Summary/Abstract: Starting from an empirical and interactionist approach of both individualand collective trajectories of radicalization and professionalization of two citizen sleuth groups, the JFK's assassination “warrenologists” and the 9/11 “truthers”, this paper aims to study grassroots conspiracism. Faced with such a violent and unexpected event, windows of opportunity open and conspiracy theories flourish. From a weberian perspective, we are gradually assisting to the transition from amateur conspiracy theorists who investigate the tragic event they underwent as a kind of “hobby” to professional ones who live for and from conspiracism. Yet, from individual awareness to micromobilizations, a collective action dynamic takes shape. Step by step, carriers of radicalization develop with the emergence of a collective politically determined cause which contributes to the institutionalization of a relatively autonomous social field with its specific capitals and resources. Since then, professional citizen sleuths engage in a competitive process and a social division of conspiracist labor arises. Each of them specializeand self-proclaimed experts, without any legitimate competence or skills, emergein various fields such like legal medicine, structural engineering or ballistic analysis. And, with the contemporary rise of the Internet, this cyber echo-chambergives an opportunity for some social actors to acquire a genuine prestige, a social and political recognition and a dominating position in the conspiracist field and even beyond. Finally, professional conspiracy theorists become “rival-associates”; each one trying to improve his/her own position in the field but also, through heteronomy effects, in the economy field, and many other fields, where conspiracy theories and conspiracy merchandising generate highly lucrative incomes.

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