In an insightful article published in the journal Theory, Culture & Society, Bojan Baća (Fellow 2020/21) further develops the research results of his Fellowship project about post-truth politics and pseudo-scientific contestations of democracy in the digital public sphere: “QAnon and the Epistemic Communities of the Unreal: A Conceptual Toolkit for a Sociology of Grassroots Conspiracism".
Do. 11 Dez. 2025
QAnon and the Epistemic Communities of the Unreal
Examining QAnon as an example for conspiracism in the digital sphere, he proposes a conceptual framework that moves away from pathologizing individuals but rather politicizes conspirational thinking and theorizing. The article proposes to recognize conspiratorial thinking as a practice of cognitive mapping, conspiracy theorizing as a practice of narrative emplotment, and conspiracism as a practice of performative citizenship – concepts borrowed from critical theory, deconstructionist historiography, and citizenship studies.
This non-pathologizing shift and the study of actual manifestations of grassroots conspiracism may offer new avenues for researchers to understand the social dynamics in the digital era that produce counterknowledge and –discourses and transform them into political actions.
The article is published as an open access publication and can be accessed here.
