1st Edition
Conspiracy Theories in Contemporary Italy Cultural Production and Political Uses
This volume explores the role played by conspiracy narratives in the contemporary Italian political, cultural, and social context, through a series of case studies.
It begins with a historical and genealogical account of the troubled success of Italian conspiracy thinking from the early 1970s to the present day. Amongst the issues examined are the unclear division between legitimate/illegitimate forms of knowledge, the use of conspiracy as a confrontational discursive device, the emergence of moral panic and the stabilization of information outlets against dominant official explanations. The analysis covers the case of a well-known national survey, and a digital platform specialising in conspiracy storytelling. The second axis of the book concerns the pervasive use of conspiracy as a theory or narrative that currently circulates in various Italian cultural fields: multiculturalism, immigration, and racism; Catholic traditionalism; football fandom; small business economics; cooking and food.
This volume will be of interest to researchers of conspiracy theories, and Italian politics and history.
Introduction
Gianmarco Navarini
1. “We know, and we have the evidence”: Dietrologia - An Italian turn in conspiracy theory
Massimiliano Guareschi
2. Boycotts, mockery, and leaders under attack: On the uses of “conspiracy” in political and journalistic discourse
Gianmarco Navarini
3. Surveying the “Irrational”: An analysis of the debate on the outcomes of the Censis 2021 questionnaire
Oscar Ricci
4. “Now and always against the dominant narrative”: Alternative news reporting, conspiracy ideation, and epistemic justifications on “The Citizens’ Television”
Maria Francesca Murru
5. “At risk of extinction”: Immigration, national identity, and global class conflict according to “Population Replacement Conspiracy Theory” in contemporary Italy
Fabio Quassoli
6. Satan's ways are endless: Catholic restorationists between Peter's usurper syndrome and QAnon
Fabio Tarzia
7. Football conspiracies: the Prisma investigation and fans’ online discourse
Luca Bifulco, Simona Castellano and Simone Tosi
8. “Watch your back when dealing with them”! Conspiracy tales among small entrepreneurs in Northern Italy
Simone Ghezzi
9. Disgusting conspiracies. Frame analysis of insect invasion fears in the Italian gastronomic field
Lorenzo Domaneschi
Biography
Gianmarco Navarini is Full Professor of Cultural Sociology at the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy. He has published widely on political rituals, liminality, social exclusion, sports practices, and wine culture. He is on the board of the journal Ethnography and Qualitative Research. He directed ELCAS (Ethnography of Language: between Conspiracy, Associations and Subcultures), which combines ethnography with discourse analysis.
“A fascinating, illuminating, and highly readable window into the dominant conspiracy theories of Italy and the ways they influence the politics, culture and language of the country.”
Anna Merlan, author of Republic of Lies
“This book makes an important contribution to research about conspiracy theories that looks beyond America. The case studies collected offer a wide-ranging and rigorous account of how conspiracism operates as a versatile discourse, shaping different fields of Italian life from party politics to football.”
Clare Birchall, King’s College London, UK
