Conspiracy Panics: Political Rationality and Popular Culture

by Jack Z. Bratich

Overview

While most other works focus on conspiracy theories, this book examines conspiracy panics, or the anxiety over the phenomenon of conspiracy theories. Jack Z. Bratich argues that conspiracy theories are portals into the major social issues defining U.S. and global political culture. These issues include the rise of new technologies, the social function of journalism, U.S. race relations, citizenship and dissent, globalization, biowarfare and biomedicine, and the shifting positions within the Left. Using a Foucauldian governmentality analysis, Bratich maintains that conspiracy panics contribute to a broader political rationality, a (neo)liberal strategy of governing at a distance through the use of reason. He also explores the growing popularity of 9/11 conspiracy research in terms of what he calls the "sphere of legitimate dissensus." Conspiracy Panics concludes that we are witnessing a new fusion of culture and rationality, one that is increasingly shared across the political spectrum.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791478820
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	02/07/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	239
File size:	556 KB

About the Author

Jack Z. Bratich is Assistant Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey and the coeditor (with Jeremy Packer and Cameron McCarthy) of Foucault, Cultural Studies, and Governmentality, also published by SUNY Press.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction
Grassy Knolledges

1. Political Science Fiction
Expert Monitors, Excessive Skepticism, and Preventive Rationality

2. Pop Goes the Profession
Journalism, New Media Culture, and Populism

3. Trust No One (on the Internet)
Gary Webb, Popular Technologies, and Professional Journalism

4. Left Behind
AIDS, Biowarfare, and the Politics of Articulation

5. Going Global
9/11, Popular Investigations, and the Sphere of Legitimate Dissensus

Conclusion

Appendix: AIDS Conspiracy Theory Chart

Notes
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

...an important contribution to the narrow field of conspiracy studies as well as the broader cultural study of politics.— Journal of Communication Inquiry

"With his concept of conspiracy panics, Bratich makes a major contribution to thinking about our complex relations to conspiracy theories, those theories that haunt and annoy us, that we want to dismiss but cannot avoid. Not only does Bratich steer a clear and confident course through conspiracy theorists and their seemingly more rational critics, but he also addresses the far more pressing question of how adherents to some ways of thinking come to be scapegoated, dismissed as crackpots, or denounced as enemies. This is a terrific book and essential reading for anyone interested in the connections between thinking and doing politics."— Jodi Dean, author of Aliens in America: Conspiracy Cultures from Outerspace to Cyberspace"

From the Publisher