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Conspiracy/Theory
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Edited by:
Joseph Masco
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2024
About this book
In an era of intensified information warfare, ranging from global disinformation campaigns to individual attention hacks, what are the compelling terms for political judgment? How are we to build the knowledge needed to recognize and address important forms of harm when critical information is either not to be trusted or kept hidden? Rather than approach conspiratorial narrative as an irrational response to an obviously decipherable reality, Conspiracy/Theory identifies important affinities between conspiracy theory and critical theory. It recognizes the motivation people have—in their capacities as experts, theorists, and ordinary citizens—to search for patterns in events, to uncover what is covert and attend to dimensions of life that might be hiding in plain sight. If it seems strange that so many find themselves living in incommensurable, disorienting realities, the multidisciplinary contributors to Conspiracy/Theory explore how and why that came to be. Across history and geography, contributors inquire into the affects and imaginaries of political mobilization, tracking counterrevolutionary projects while acknowledging collective futures that demand conspiratorial engagement.
Contributors. Nadia Abu El-Haj, Hussein Ali Agrama, Kathleen Belew, Elizabeth Anne Davis, Joseph Dumit, Faith Hillis, Lochlann Jain, Demetra Kasimis, Susan Lepselter, Darryl Li, Louisa Lombard, Joseph Masco, Robert Meister, Timothy Melley, Rosalind C. Morris, George Shulman, Lisa Wedeen
Contributors. Nadia Abu El-Haj, Hussein Ali Agrama, Kathleen Belew, Elizabeth Anne Davis, Joseph Dumit, Faith Hillis, Lochlann Jain, Demetra Kasimis, Susan Lepselter, Darryl Li, Louisa Lombard, Joseph Masco, Robert Meister, Timothy Melley, Rosalind C. Morris, George Shulman, Lisa Wedeen
Author / Editor information
Joseph Masco is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago and author of The Future of Fallout, and Other Episodes in Radioactive World-Making, also published by Duke University Press.
Lisa Wedeen is Mary R. Morton Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and author of Authoritarian Apprehensions: Ideology, Judgment, and Mourning in Syria.
Lisa Wedeen is Mary R. Morton Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and author of Authoritarian Apprehensions: Ideology, Judgment, and Mourning in Syria.
Reviews
“In a time of increasing epistemic confusion, Joseph Masco and Lisa Wedeen brilliantly complicate the usual distinction between fact-based rationality and conspiracy theory by analyzing the infiltration of official disinformation into the public sphere and by exploring the blurred line between paranoid thinking and critical theory. Their book is an innovative and crucial contribution to the understanding of the politics of uncertainty and suspicion in contemporary societies.”
-- Didier Fassin, Professor at the Collège de France and the Institute for Advanced Study
“This brilliant collection envisions conspiracy theories anew. It not only showcases distinct conspiracies across global sites and time periods, but also petitions readers to examine their own investments in conspiratorial thinking. Conspiracy/Theory is a dazzling provocation and an important intervention.”
-- Elisabeth R. Anker, author of Ugly Freedoms
"A thought-provoking compilation of reflections on conspiracy theories drawing on diverse geographical and historical contexts. Refusing to dismiss conspiracy theories as inherently pathological or uninformed, this volume unpacks conspiracism as political critique, expressions of dissent, and a challenge to entrenched epistemic institutions."
-- Pascale Taplin Anthropological Forum
-- Pascale Taplin Anthropological Forum
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Frontmatter
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CONTENTS
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INTRODUCTION: CONSPIRACY / THEORY
1 - PART I ORGANIZING FICTIONS
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01 IMPASSE AND GENRE IN AMERICAN POLITICS AND LITERATURE
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02 WHERE DID AIDS COME FROM?
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03 A FALSE FLAG
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04 CONSPIRACY ATTUNEMENT AND CONTEXT / THE CASE OF THE PRESIDENT’S BODY
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05 CONSPIRACY, THEORY, AND THE “POST-TRUTH” PUBLIC SPHERE
127 - PART II ATMOSPHERES OF DOUBT
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06 ON UNCERTAINTY AND THE QUESTION OF JUDGMENT
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07 RESONANT APOPHENIA
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08 THE PLAY OF CONSPIRACY IN PLATO’S REPUBLIC
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09 AN ECONOMY OF SUSPICION / ON THE “MILITARY-CIVILIAN DIVIDE” AND THE NEW AMERICAN MILITARISM
210 - PART III THE FORCE OF CAPITAL
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10 CONSPIRACIES OF THEORY / OF GOLD IN THE SHADOW OF DEINDUSTRIALIZATION
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11 ADRIAN PIPER AND ALIEN CONSPIRACIES OF BULLYING AND WHISTLEBLOWING
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12 HUMANITARIAN PROFITEERING IN THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC AS CONSPIRACY AND RUMOR
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13 CONFESSIONS OF AN ACCUSED CONSPIRACY THEORIST / THE FINANCIALIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION
314 - PART IV THE POLITICS OF ENMITY
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14 CONSPIRACY AND ITS CURIOUS AFTERLIVES
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15 COMEDY OF TERRORS / NATIONAL SECURITY FICTIONS AND THE ORIGINS OF AL-QA‘ IDA
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16 AFTER MUSLIMS / AUTHORITY, SUSPICION, AND SECRECY IN THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC STATE
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17 FLAME AND STEEL INSIDE THE CAPITOL
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EPILOGUE
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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REFERENCES
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CONTRIBUTORS
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CONTRIBUTORS
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
February 14, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9781478027676
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9781478027676
Keywords for this book
Epistemology; doubt; violence; disinformation; narrative; suspicion; critical theory; conspiracy theory; psyops; Richard Hofstadter; American politics; impasse; paranoid style; The Federalist Papers; political realism; HIV origins; Royal Society; Africa; Edward Hopper; Cold War; deception; Team B; reality effect; Donald Trump; War on Terror; Cyprus; political violence; recursivity; Tassos Papadopoulos; strategic irrationalism; democratic security society; authoritarianism; fake news; judgement; truth and politics; Syrian uprising; abduction; UFO; Plato; erosion; decay; backsliding; civil-military divide; American Militarism; combat trauma; moral injury; civilians; gold mining; informalization; harassment; corporate violence; Adrian Piper; Central African Republic; stratification; morality; rumor; University of California; tuition; student debt; financialization; inequality; Protocols of the Elders of Zion; France; Russia; Juliette Adam; Okhrana; National security fictions; Al-Qa’ida; terrorism expertise; conspiracy law; Islam; Egypt; blasphemy; insurrection; White Power Movement; Turner Diaries; replacement; Fort Smith; Arkansas; epistemic crisis; January 6th insurrection; grifting; authoritarian rule; Washington DC; Q-Anon
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
