Europe: Continent of Conspiracies: Conspiracy Theories in and about Europe

Andreas Önnerfors · André Krouwel

Apr. 2021 · Routledge

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This edited volume investigates for the first time the impact of conspiracy theories upon the understanding of Europe as a geopolitical entity as well as an imagined political and cultural space.

Focusing on recent developments, the individual chapters explore a range of conspiratorial positions related to Europe. In the current climate of fear and threat, new and old imaginaries of conspiracies such as Islamophobia and anti-Semitism have been mobilised. A dystopian or even apocalyptic image of Europe in terminal decline is evoked in Eastern European and particularly by Russian pro-Kremlin media, while the EU emerges as a screen upon which several narratives of conspiracy are projected trans-nationally, ranging from the Greek debt crisis to migration, Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic. The methodological perspectives applied in this volume range from qualitative discourse and media analysis to quantitative social-psychological approaches, and there are a number of national and transnational case studies.

This book will be of great interest to students and researchers of extremism, conspiracy theories and European politics.

Autoren-Profil

Andreas Önnerfors is Full Professor of History of Sciences and Ideas and Dean of Class I, ’Humanities’ at the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Salzburg, Austria.

André Krouwel is Associate Professor of Political Science and Communication at VU Amsterdam, the Netherlands.