1st Edition

Populism and Conspiracy Theory Case Studies and Theoretical Perspectives

378 Pages 2 Color & 27 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

378 Pages 2 Color & 27 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book explores the close connections between populism and conspiracy theory. Populism and Conspiracy Theory contributes to filling the gap in the research in this area. The individual contributions in Part I provide in-depth analyses of specific configurations of populism and conspiracy theory. Part II includes nuanced considerations of more theoretical issues. The case studies cover both... Read more

Introduction  

Michael Butter  

 

Part I: Case Studies  

1.      Makers versus Getters: Productivism in Henry Ford’s The International Jew  

Adam John Koper    

2.      Anticommunism and Conspiracy Myths in Brazil: From the 1937 “Cohen Plan” to the Bolsonarist “Red Menace”  

Rodrigo Patto Sá Motta  

3.      The Weaponization of Conspiracy Theories  

Eirikur Bergmann  

4.      Populism and Conspiracism in Croatia and Their Articulations among Citizens from Left to Right  

Nebojša Blanuša  

5.      “We are the Olive Trees”—Conspiracism and Environmentalism in Southern Italy: The Case of Xylella Fastidiosa  

Giovanna Parmigiani  

6.      Populism and Conspiracy Thinking in the Aufstehen-Movement  

Leo Roepert  

7.      “The Invention of a Pandemic”—Conspiracist Argumentation in the German Alternative Newspaper Demokratischer Widerstand  

Nina Pilz  

8.      Left-Wing Populist Conspiracism: The Case of Tunisia  

Tarek Kahlaoui  

9.      Conspiracy Theory and the Muslim Brotherhood in Post-Revolutionary Egypt: A Left-Right Convergence?  

Helen Murphey  

10.  Conspiratorial Tropes in Rodrigo Duterte’s Populistic Rhetoric  

Franciszek Czech  

Part II: Theoretical Perspectives  

11.  Marxismo Cultural/Cultural Marxism: Transnational Conspiracy Theories and the Brazilian New Right  

Andrew Woods  

12.  On the Elective Affinity between Post-Marxism, Left-Wing Populism, and Conspiracist World Views  

Helge Petersen and Hannah Hecker  

13.  A New Poetic of Conspiracism? Conspiracy Theory in a Time of Post-Narrative Politics  

Sebastian M. Herrmann  

14.  New Media’s Conspiratorial Affordances: An Ecology of Mind Approach  

Letícia Cesarino  

15.  Haute Baroque Bling: Style, Taste, and Distinction in the Study of Conspiracist Populism  

Clare Birchall  

16.  Studying Conspiracy Theory after the (Current) Rise of Right-Wing Populism  

Mark Fenster  

Biography

Michael Butter is a professor of American Studies at the University of Tübingen in Germany, co-editor of the Handbook of Conspiracy Theories (Routledge, 2020) and PI of the ERC-funded project “PACT: Populism and Conspiracy Theory.”

Katerina Hatzikidi is a social anthropologist and postdoctoral researcher for the “PACT: Populism and Conspiracy Theory” project.

Constanze Jeitler is a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute for Contemporary History at the University of Tübingen, Germany, and part of the “PACT: Populism and Conspiracy Theory” research project.

Giacomo Loperfido is a social and political anthropologist and postdoctoral researcher for the “PACT: Populism and Conspiracy Theory” project.

Lili Turza is a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Tübingen, Germany, and part of the “PACT: Populism and Conspiracy Theory” research project.