We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
This paper tries to address a more general issue of conspiracy theories as knowledge, its (mis)treatments, selective and biased use, as well as specific features and outcomes of different epistemic approaches to conspiracy theories important for further clarification of this field of research. Following that, the author tries to explain why the “deep state” is a good candidate for such a research of conspiratorial knowledge as a field of contesting interpretations. Conceptually speaking, the “deep state” is considered as a sort of systemic, political arch-conspiracy, or the parapolitical structure organized for permanent conspiratorial enterprises. In that sense, it functions as a metaphorical umbrella for state conspiracies and includes many contested singular conspiracy theories. Furthermore, it will be shown, through the analysis of the current scholarly literature on the “deep state”, how the knowledge produced by those scholars who believe in its existence can be contested and compared with (non)conspiratorial public interpretations, and other experts’ arguments who are not “enchanted” by this concept. The purpose of such research would be to explore differences in argumentation, provided basis for evidence-building and alternative explanations between these various groups of social agents. Based on this information, further more rigorous social science research should enable us to build the criteria for differentiation between warranted and unwarranted conspiratorial skepticism.
More...
This article is a call for the academic debate on conspiracy theories to advance beyond general cultural analyses. To achieve that, we must make our conceptual tools more precise. I discuss the fundamental component of power difference to conspiracy theories and suggest an analytical typology based on their 'gradient of power'. Beyond that, I argue that we should work towards a theory for the structure of circulation of conspiratorial forms and logics. To this end, I introduce the notion of 'conspiracy narrative' as the basic element in such dynamics. I sketch out a model for the mechanics of interaction and exchange in webs of conspiracy narratives.
More...
The current paper situates the scare around the “Russian hacking of the US elections” in a historical line of utopias and dystopias of the digital age. By tracing the genealogy of beliefs about the Internet and democratization, I show how the initial euphoric embracement of cyber-space as revolutionizing politics has been inverted in more recent narratives about the Internet and the death of democracy. In the shadow of figures such as hackers, bots, and trolls spreading disinformation, both Democrats and Republicans have created their own conspiracy theories around the leaking of DNC emails. By analysing a Reddit thread that attempts to be “neutral” amidst an increasingly polarized political debate, I show how difficult it is to avoid relapsing in conspiracy theories considering the absence of publicly available decisive evidence, the diminished trust in institutions, and the amenability of technological trails to falsification and multiple interpretations. Thus, apart from laying a claim on the right to know and tell political truths, conspiracy theories point also to the impossibility of attaining, in a rational and categorical way, a truth that is passionately sought. Ultimately, I argue that interpreting the outcome of the US elections as the result of a secret technological intervention is a form of techno-fetishism that overlooks much more complex political and economic factors.
More...
Last October, speaking to her party conference, British Prime Minister Theresa May, told her audience that “if you believe you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere.” When I read this, I felt that this was, as the saying goes now, “déjà vu all over again.” It reminded me uncomfortably of the old epithet of “rootless cosmopolitans”, used over the years to denounce certain people as unpatriotic – not least in Russia, in old imperial, as well as Soviet eras, as an anti-Semitic slur. I am sure the Prime Minister had no such intentions, but it made me think once more of notions of cosmopolitanism.
More...
Recent ethnocentric statements of prominent politicians (Theresa May, Donald Trump, Beata Szydło, Viktor Orbán, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan etc.) and trans-geographic revival of xenophobic attitudes may indicate that if there is any spectre haunting the contemporary world, it is not the spectre of cosmopolitanism. Neoliberal times of “anxious geopolitics” seem to be better fitted for other “-isms”, to name just racism, nationalism, orientalism or imperialism which gradually form the shameful fundaments for dystopian world of anti-immigrant “bloody legislation” and violent erasure of trouble-causing, i.e.
More...
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.
More...
In the fall of 2011, one of the working groups of #Occupy Wall Street discussed the idea to endorse the concepts of the Zeitgeist films as an official ideology of the movement. The idea was ultimately dismissed, but since the Zeitgeist films were heavily influenced by Alex Jones, in order to do that, the working group needed to draw a dividing line between conspiracy theories and the rebellious knowledge about the injustice of the 1%, which had inspired #Occupy. As the dividing line was to be drawn in discussion, which foreclosed any argument founded on authority, in fact, any argument that implied asymmetrical distribution of knowledge, the theories of conspiracy theories turned out to be useless. Therefore the working group developed a concept of conspiracy theory suitable for its practical purposes,and shaped by what the participants perceived as strategic vulnerabilities. The concept claimed that conspiracy theory was any theory that could be accused of being one, and as this concept could be extended to any theory of injustice, the working group ultimately decided to recommend that #Occupy should not have any ideology. Later, the lack of ideology was widely criticized as a crucial vulnerability of the movement. Of course, the paper does not attribute this vulnerability to the rejection of the Zeitgeist films. Yet I will claim that the discussion of the films exemplifies a risk brought about by the concept of conspiracy theory, the risk of making anydissent vulnerable to accusations of irrationality.
More...
The article covers the issues related to the process of training students for professional activity. The authors introduce a new term "professional integrity". This term is presented by three interrelated structural components: cognitive, communicative, and behavioral. The psychological and pedagogical basis of professional activity is theoretically justified. Diagnostic tools for the problematic area of professional activity are verified empirically. The sources of difficulties and problems faced by a person in professional activity are found out. The authors identify a correlation among the sources of difficulties of a person in the important life spheres. Psychological and pedagogical recommendations on solving problems related to the formation of professional activity at higher education institutions are developed. The findings can be attractive for teachers, psychologists, postgraduate students interested in problems of starting professional activity.
More...
This article tries to set the basis of a discussion regarding the link between Nichifor Crainic’s philosophical, theological, and political thought & work (in view of his ethnographic state as a mandatory solution for the shaping of the interwar Romanian society) based on a Christian-orthodox fundamental belief, and the emergence of a powerful Romanian extreme right movement during same period of time – not excluding from the discussion Crainic’s direct or indirect influence in this case. Our proposal is to pinpoint the link between the emergence of Crainic’s philosophical and political convictions to a preexistent substratum of intertwining between fundamental nationalism, cultural, popular, or religious beliefs, a type of intolerance, and the acceptance of the foreigner among Romanian traditional communities.
More...
The context of historical and cultural heritage as a personal history is currently one of the largest natural projects of the last decade: there are thematic projects, photo albums about the history of the family, generation, etc. in the virtual space. The article deals with autobiographical works of representatives of one generation of hereditary Siberian peasants, witnesses and participants of key events of the Russian history in the 20th century – the self-taught artist Dmitry Galanin and the People's artist of Russia Mikhail Budkeev. Both authors are nonprofessionals in the chosen artistic narrative form of their ways of life. Dmitry Galanin turned to painting in the decline of years without artistic education, and Mikhail Budkeev, being a recognized master-painter, but without literary experience in the genre of memoirs, in short novels consistently recreated his life. In the course of the research, an attempt has been made to correlate the facts from the authors' biographies with their artistic interpretation. Simultaneously with the semantic analysis of the works, the article examines their historical and cultural context, explores the peculiarities of the artistic language and reveals the commonality of the world perception. Based on the sources, general characteristics have been given and the formation of special worldview attitudes of the Siberian peasant population has been substantiated. The examples of the Siberian territorial and social dialectic words and phrases "kerzhak", "chaldon", etc. have been provided. In quotations from Mikhail Budkeev's memoirs, the spelling and punctuation of the author have been preserved. The significance of autobiographical authentic works (in a pictorial and literary form) as an important component of the source base for the study of historical and cultural heritage and socio-cultural aspects in humanitarian research has been determined.
More...
This paper discusses the interplay between money, price, value and exchange by analysing relationships between the concepts and looking more deeply at value and price specifically. The focus on value is because perceived value from both the seller and the buyer perspectives is the concept that enables a specific exchange transaction to take place firstly by being quantified (e.g. in money terms) and then by a value alignment process between the parties (e.g. priceagreement). The discussion on value presents some aspects of value generation based on an economics and a marketing perspectives. The first part of the discussion on price is a presentation of a theoretical model of the value alignment process. This then leads on to a discussion, based on micro-economic pricing theory, of the supply and demand balancing process which is the foundation of price discovery (which in turn can be seen as a quantification in money of the value alignment process discussed earlier). The paper concludes with a discussion of a ‘more nuanced’ aspect of value being the distinction between ‘needs’ and ‘wants’ and thus, between objective needs and those which are subjective and, following on from this, on the ‘fine line’ boundaries between freedom of choice and manipulation which can arise in this value perception process.
More...
The present text comprises the author’s introductory address to the concert held on December 8, 2017, in the Lublin Philharmonic (Gustav Mahler, Symphony no. 3 in D Minor, conducted by Piotr Wajrak, and performed by the Lublin Philharmonic Orchestra, Female Choir ‘The Lublin Lute,’ Boys Choir ‘The Lublin Nightingales,’ and Anna Lubańska—alto). The author scrutinizes the relation obtaining between the musical expression of Mahler’s Symphony no. 3 in D Minor and the composer’s interpretation of Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical ideas.
More...
The author of the publication explains the motives that led to the growing global terrorism. Terrorism is a natural phenomenon, it can appear in any society associated with various factors, including the political, economic, social, religious and ideological environments. Every considerance of an issue connected with certain concepts requires defining these concepts by a rule illustrating their components and features. Opinions on the concept of “terrorism” differed in terms of substance and motivation and even the legal aspects of this phenomenon and their interpenetration with similar phenomena, especially the National-Liberation Movements.
More...
It is extremely important for the disabled people who have serious difficulties communicating in a phonic language to be able to interact with the environment. The tools and aids available on the market are, however, often beyond an individual user’s financial capacity or are not adapted to the needs of adults. This paper presents the principles for selecting vocabulary to match tools serving the purpose of augmentative and alternative communication as well as the vocabulary and rules for its combination in utterances, which should be introduced at the first, initial, stage of implementing this means of communication. The excerpted vocabulary will be applicable mainly in the case of people with major limitations of communication, who have not used such tools yet (AAC systems) and who have required such a support since recently and as a result of an emergency.
More...
This paper draws on thirteen semi-structured interviews with journalists from Bulgarian print media and news websites to outline their perceptions of their professional world. The interviews were conducted between March and June 2016, within the framework of the study on anti-democratic propaganda in Bulgaria. Without exaggeration, both the analysis of media and the interviews with journalists have shown the disintegration of the field of journalism as a differentiated field in Bulgaria. What is this due to? Our interviewees explained it with the commercialization and shift in focus from winning trust to securing higher ratings – the media have come to be understood as entertainment and journalism is trying to adjust to this ‘commercial’ requirement. But this is not the main (or at least not the sufficient) reason. The market, in turn, is changing under pressure from free online media, the reorientation of television towards new formats (of entertainment), and the subsequent fragmentation of audiences. What differentiates print media and news websites, however, is the drastic merger of entertainment and direct politics through omerta on certain topics and persons, through advertorials that are not properly (if at all) indicated as such, and all of this – in the absence of information about who owns the media. Our interviewees share a common practical dilemma: you either do journalism, or work for a media corporation. If one wants to do proper journalism, one has to shy away from the topics of the day and withdraw to the safer territories of marginal topics.
More...
Before Mannheim’s sociology of knowledge and Marx’s theory of ideology, there was an Enlightened proto-sociology of error and prejudice which, in its emphasis on deliberate priestly deception, provides one of the main examples of ‘the conspiracy theory of ignorance’ as conceptualized by Popper. This paper follows the development of the sociology of knowledge from that starting point, in order to examine how authors like Marx, Lukács, Mannheim and others have theorized an almost perfect, self-working machinery of ideological reproduction which can be used in conspiracy theories simply by reinstating intentionality in the creation and management of such device.
More...
In the autumn of 2011, one of the working groups of #Occupy Wall Street discussed the idea of endorsing the concepts of the Zeitgeist films as an official ideology of the movement. The idea was ultimately dismissed, but since the Zeitgeist films were heavily influenced by Alex Jones, in order to do so the working group needed to develop a dividing line between conspiracy theories and the rebellious knowledge about the injustice of the 1%, which had inspired #Occupy. As the dividing line was to be drawn in discussion, which foreclosed any argument founded on authority, in fact any argument that implied asymmetrical distribution of knowledge, the theories of conspiracy theories turned out to be useless. Therefore the working group developed a concept of conspiracy theory suitable for its practical purposes, and shaped by what the participants perceived as strategic vulnerabilities. Their concept claimed that a conspiracy theory was any theory that can be accused of being one, and as this concept could be extended to any theory of injustice, the working group ultimately decided to recommend that #Occupy should not have any ideology. Later, the lack of ideology was widely criticized as a crucial vulnerability of the movement. Of course, this paper would not attribute this vulnerability to the rejection of the Zeitgeist films. Yet I will claim that the discussion of the films exemplifies a risk brought about by the concept of conspiracy theory, the risk of making any dissent vulnerable to accusations of irrationality.
More...
NOWO POWSTAŁA POLSKA, KTÓREJ OBYWATELKI I OBYWATELE MAJĄ TEORETYCZNĄ RÓWNOŚĆ GŁOSU, DAJE KOBIETOM SZANSE NA ZDOBYCIE PODMIOTOWOŚCI. WKRACZAJĄ ONE NA DROGĘ DO WŁASNEGO SAMOSTANOWIENIA – Z DETERMINACJĄ WALCZĄC O MIEJSCE W NAZNACZONYM PRZEZ MĘŻCZYZN ŚWIECIE.
More...