Conspiracy Theories as Productive Practices: Toward a Theory of Conspiratorial Style, Agency, and Politics

Abstract

This article reviews anthropological explorations of conspiracy theories-in dialogue with insights from other disciplines, primarily political science,philosophy, and social psychology-to frame conspiracy theories as produc-tive social practices. While conspiracy theories are often depicted throughtheir epistemological shortcomings and associated with social and politi-cal margins, this article traces the nascent threads across anthropologicalscholarship to reach an emic understanding of those narratives and theirsociopolitical reverberations and proposes approaching conspiracy theoriesthrough their style, agentive implications, and political effects. Conspirato-rial style, the article argues, pertains not to the content of the narrative but toits incessant seeking of covert operations beyond readily visible forms as wellas a growing flexibility regarding the narrator's belief in the narrative's verac-ity.The agentivizing dynamic generated through conspiracism differentiatescontemporary conspiracism from its predecessors and involves an empower-ing current. Finally, the article focuses on how contemporary conspiracismis intricately linked to political contestations.