Are You with Us or Against Us? : Studying Conflicts Over Conspiracy Theories and Overcoming the Great Conspiratorial Divide
Drążkiewicz, Elżbieta LU
(2023)
In Anthropology in Action
30(1).
p.12-23
- Abstract
- 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... (More)
- 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.
(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/a59e8b44-97a8-424f-bc11-db64be611e6a
- author
- Drążkiewicz, Elżbieta
LU
- publishing date
- 2023-03-01
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- conspiracy theories, anthropology, research methodology, populist online communication, STS, medical anthropology and sociology, Truth, truth regimes, Vaccination programmes, COVID -19, HPV vaccination, Ireland
- in
- Anthropology in Action
- volume
- 30
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 12 pages
- publisher
- Berghahn Journals
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85152701671
- ISSN
- 1752-2285
- DOI
- 10.3167/aia.2023.300102
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- a59e8b44-97a8-424f-bc11-db64be611e6a
- date added to LUP
- 2023-08-14 20:20:40
- date last changed
- 2023-08-23 16:54:47
@article{a59e8b44-97a8-424f-bc11-db64be611e6a,
abstract = {{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.<br/><br/>}},
author = {{Drążkiewicz, Elżbieta}},
issn = {{1752-2285}},
keywords = {{conspiracy theories; anthropology; research methodology; populist online communication; STS; medical anthropology and sociology; Truth; truth regimes; Vaccination programmes; COVID -19; HPV vaccination; Ireland}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{03}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{12--23}},
publisher = {{Berghahn Journals}},
series = {{Anthropology in Action}},
title = {{Are You with Us or Against Us? : Studying Conflicts Over Conspiracy Theories and Overcoming the Great Conspiratorial Divide}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/aia.2023.300102}},
doi = {{10.3167/aia.2023.300102}},
volume = {{30}},
year = {{2023}},
}