The Political Sociology of Post-Truth Politics

Abstract

The phenomenon of post-truth politics is generally discussed with regard to a profound transformation of political culture, the public sphere and democracy towards the age of post-democracy. The question is whether post-truth politics in their diverse manifestations necessarily undermine democracy or whether democracy is also reclaimed in the way the post-truth challenge is dealt with by transnational governance, the ways journalism and science communications are renewed and the ways new forms of civic engagement are established. The panel invites for contributions that analyse the magnitude of the phenomenon with reference to recent manifestations of post-truth mobilisation and the spread of conspiracies during the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine conflict in Europe. It further proposes to look at various forms of political and societal responses to the post-truth challenge, among them, most prominently, the EU approach to disinformation in light of its underlying problem definitions, ascriptions of responsibility and proposed solutions. We ask critically how the post-truth challenge is identified by the EU and how disinformation as a collective problem is framed to authorize EU action. As we are going to argue, the EU’s claim to step forward as a defender of democracy and values and as a defender of truth creates possible tensions that do not only need to be settled conceptually, but also translate into social and political conflicts, involving states, global media companies in the digital media business, traditional journalism and increasingly also groups of media users and citizens.

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