31.1806, FYI: Call for Book Chapter Proposals

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-31-1806. Sat May 30 2020. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 31.1806, FYI: Call for Book Chapter Proposals

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Date: Sat, 30 May 2020 02:56:03
From: Massimiliano Demata [massimiliano.demata at unito.it]
Subject: Call for Book Chapter Proposals

 
Discourses of and about Conspiracy Theories

Ed. by Ruth Breeze, Massimiliano Demata, Virginia Zorzi and Angela Zottola

Conspiracy theories (CTs) seem to be having a growing influence on public
opinion in many countries.  A CT is “an effort to explain some event or
practice by reference to the machinations of powerful people, who attempt to
conceal their role” (Sunstein & Vermeule 2009, 275). In other words,
conspiracy theorist lay out a distorted representation of the world in which
we are constantly being exploited and oppressed for the benefit of the few in
power. CTs are fed by misinformation and fake news and find a very favourable
terrain in the internet and especially in social media, where Facebook and
Twitter have had a major role in spreading CTs and misinformation. While CTs
are not new, the current age of “post-truth” (D’Ancona 2017) or “the death of
truth” (Kakutani 2018) has given new impetus to a set of increasingly powerful
and popular counter-discourses opposing the hegemonic mass media, political
institutions, the “elites” and official science. 

CTs construct a counter-reality and a set of alternative explanations of
complex problems, ranging from health issues (e.g. 5G, anti-vaxxers), weather
control and climate (chemtrails, climate change deniers), economy and the
state infrastructure (the New World Order, the “deep state”). Those who
believe in CTs oppose the validity of mainstream science, the discourse of
“official” media and state institutions, and employ discursive strategies
based on highly emotional language and the construction of conflictual social
identities.

CTs are also used as political tools, and are routinely used by some political
parties as part of their agenda based on finding scapegoats for social or
economic problems (Richardson 2013; Ter Wal 2017; Wodak 2020).  Populist
parties and leaders use CTs as a means to mobilize people against the elite or
an outside enemy and identify them as explanations for the elite’s oppression
of the people (Bergmann 2018; Bergmann and Butter 2020).  The recent outbreak
of COVID-19 has witnessed the rise of numerous CTs which supported accounts
and explanations about the pandemic outside (and against) official science and
mass media, even though most of them lack any hard evidence and often consist
in totally exaggerated or implausible claims, which have been used with
political motivations, for example to attack China. 

Discourses of and about Conspiracy Theories aims to fill an important gap in
the literature: CTs have attracted a lot of attention from political
scientists (e.g. Uscinski 2019), but there has been little extensive research
done on the actual discourses and language of CTs, or those opposing them, by
using the approaches developed by Discourse Analysis or Critical Discourse
Analysis.  

We are looking for chapters focusing on the discourse of the currently most
popular CTs (including those about the COVID-19 pandemic)  as elaborated by
three groups of social actors:

1) the “manufacturers” of CTs; 
2) the “supporters” of CTs;
3) the “opponents” of CTs.

The focus of single chapters may be national, transnational or comparative. 
Issues may include, but are not limited to, the following:

- Discursive strategies of Self-Legitimization and Delegitimization 
- Online discourses
- Emotions and violence in language
- Argumentation
- Humour in or against CTs
- Multimodal strategies in discourses of and against CTs

Abstracts for chapters (200 words plus references) should be received by 30
June 2020. An international publisher has expressed strong interest in this
volume, and we will submit the full proposal to them after selection of
abstracts. Confirmation of acceptance will be by 15 July 2020, and chapters
will be due by 15 December 2020.  We plan to have the book published by the
end of Summer 2021.  

Please send abstracts to: 
rbreeze at unav.es 
massimiliano.demata at unito.it 
virginia.zorzi at unito.it
angela.zottola at unito.it
 



Linguistic Field(s): Discourse Analysis





 



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