Connecting the Dots: Reconstructing the Social Production of Suspicious Knowledge

In recent years, skeptical and suspicious perceptions of social processes, sometimes labeled as conspiracy theories, have received much attention in public debate and the social sciences. Our project is interested in the content of this particular form of social criticism, the motivations, values and beliefs of people who are appealed by it and the practices of communication in this growing community.

The reconstructive mixed-methods research project aims to analyze dimensions of social structure, the emergence of milieus and the maintenance of scenes, concrete interactions and conflict resolution in the context of the production of suspicious knowledge in German-speaking countries.