Conspiracy Theories in Contemporary Italy

<p>This volume explores the role played by conspiracy narratives in the contemporary Italian political cultural and social context through a series of case studies.</p><p>It begins with a historical and genealogical account of the troubled success of Italian conspiracy thinking from the early 1970s to the present day. Among 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 specializing 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; and cooking and food.</p><p>This volume will be of interest to researchers of conspiracy theories and Italian politics and history.</p>