Conspiracy Theories in Contemporary Italy: Cultural Production and Political Uses

This volume provides an overview of the role played by conspiracy narratives in the contemporary Italian political, cultural, and social context. It maps out key issues in the public discourse, focusing on the historical origins of conspiracy theories in the 1970s, the not clear-cut dividing line between legitimate/illegitimate forms of knowledge, the current use of conspiracism as a confrontational discursive device, the emergence of moral panics and anti-conspiracist discourses, the stabilization of non-conformist information outlets. The book also analyzes the pervasive use of conspiracy as a theory or narrative currently circulating in various Italian cultural fields, including immigration and racism, Catholic traditionalism, football fandom, small business economics, and cooking and food.