Paper short abstract:

Using diabetes as an example, we consider how the pharmaceutical industry has commandeered authoritative medical knowledge, and state-sponsored oversight institutions, to recast the condition such that it builds and protects a blockbuster drug market.

Paper long abstract:

While generally assumed that evolving medical concepts reflect the latest scientific knowledge, health care is a highly lucrative economic sector, and may be best understood in terms of strategic market manipulations. Using diabetes as an example, we argue that the pharmaceutical industry commandeers authoritative medical knowledge, and influences state-sponsored oversight institutions, to recast the condition in ways that build and protect the market it serves. The industry has produced information and promoted its interpretation in ways that have resulted in important revisions in how the condition is understood and addressed, paving the way for blockbuster drugs. By converting "risk" into a pathology requiring pharmaceutical management, and changing professional standards for who is tested, how they are tested and how tests are interpreted, industry affiliates, facilitated by sympathetic professional and regulatory bodies, have fabricated a diabetes "epidemic" and treatment standards that require heavy use of pharmaceuticals. Despite weak or contrary evidence of the benefit of maintaining tight glucose control, and substantial indication that the pharmaceuticals used toward this end may be harmful, poly-pharmacy is now common place even for those with only mildly elevated glucose levels. We note that such data and regulatory manipulations are the everyday business practices of this industry which are likely being applied to many other illnesses and conditions. We call for considering the real public health costs of tolerating this pervasive and multi-faceted industry distortion of the facts, and allowing their influence over the agencies intended to provide checks and balances to industry aspirations.

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Paper short abstract:

This ethnography finds that newsmakers in China's ostensibly state-controlled press system are increasingly guided by radically interpersonal and contingent, rather than collective or rule-based, ethics; and uses this case to reconsider the ethics of news-making in today's 'post-political' world.

Paper long abstract:

Although China is commonly understood to have a highly 'state-controlled press', this ethnographic study of news-making in Beijing and Guangzhou finds that forces and logics of "the state" are not a predominant feature of journalists' and editors' everyday work practices. Rather, government officials, Communist Party policies and propaganda directives intermingle and coevolve with advertising clients, business opportunities and changing reportorial fashions. Newsmakers do not obey a fixed set of state-issued news standards, or orient their coverage around a coherent range of state-formulated truth claims; but negotiate with, manipulate and strategically appropriate government and Party agents and resources, to suit the contingent situations they find themselves in, just as they do all their other business rivals and collaborators. Rather than frame this, as many 'China-watchers' have, as evidence of the unprincipled opportunism and systemic corruption which is resulting from the post-Mao Party's attempt to replace Mao's revolutionary socialism with a form of Communist state-capitalism, I explore such practices as sites of what many news-makers themselves call an emergent jianghu ethic. A term drawn from Chinese martial arts literature, dating back to the 13th century, jianghu entails what Petrus Liu has described as a form of "stateless" subjectivity - a mode of sociality in which the norms and obligations that individuals feel bound by are radically relational, rather than rule-based; and interpersonal, rather than system-governed. I show how this offers an interesting perspective from which to reconsider the ethics and politics of news-making in a broader 'post-political' contemporary world.

Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on the construction and dissemination of truth under the authoritarian rule of the President Erdogan in Turkey, where political argumentation is preconditioned to appeals to emotion and heroic reconstitution of the Turkish etatism.

Paper long abstract:

In the aftermath of the controversial "15 July coup", the Erdogan-led government marks this day as the "Day of Democracy and National Unity" whilst toughening the conditions of the state of emergency that has caused massive dismissals and imprisonments of academics, civil servants, activists, journalists and politicians. The commemoration events filled with Islamist symbols transformed into a neo-Ottomanist public show accompanied by the reciting of the Quran from the minarets of 80,000 mosques all over the country. The users of the Turkish cellphone providers heard a short message of Erdogan upon each call they made, which was the apex of these neo-Orwellian rites. Notwithstanding the evidences of corruption, massacres of civilians in the Kurdish towns, and deep-rooted relations with the allegedly perpetuator of the putsch, i.e. the Fetullah Gülen movement, President Erdogan imposes a ritualistic and transcendental "democracy and national unity" that is predicated on the ultimate submission to his authority. By controlling the mainstream media, censoring social media platforms, and banning opposition TV channels, radio stations, and newspapers, President Erdogan has become the obsolete source of truth. In this regard, this paper is an attempt to disclose the contemporary mode of veridiction, Wahrsagen, by examining the discourses and practices of the new Turkish authoritarianism, which is historically annexed to strong figures, conspiracy theories and criminalization of the opposition.

Paper short abstract:

Comparing the amorphousness of rumors to the written and recorded archive of "the news" in an ethnic minority region of Southwest China, I discuss rumor as a thing outside the control of the state. The potency of rumor lies in its ability to breach taboos and create alternative realities/truths.

Paper long abstract:

In rural Southwest China, on the border to Northern Burma, the Chinese urbanization machine churns. Freshly built bridges, buildings, and electric stations incessantly sprout in this remote mountainous region. Rumor has it that people are going missing from these developments. They are sacrificed―poisoned, kidnapped and buried alive under the new edifices. Such rumors are not unique to China. Similar stories have been reported in other parts of the world, including in India and in Malaysia. This paper attempts to account for this "Body Snatcher" rumor. Who are the body snatchers? What do they do with the people they kidnap? How do they chose their victims? This paper compares rumors to such things as dreams, jokes, and legends. I analyze the form, the narrative structure, and the symbolic content of the body snatcher rumors to understand the significance of such kinds of rumors in this particular historical moment. Comparing the amorphous nature of rumors to the written and recorded archive of "the news," this paper discusses rumor as a thing outside state purview and bureaucratic control. This ability to breach taboos and create alternative realities/truths is precisely where the potency of rumors lie. I argue that the body snatcher rumors show us the generalized fears and unspoken desires that ordinary people have towards their condition and towards authority.

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Paper short abstract:

CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping follows in a long line of Chinese leaders who have invoked fear of conspiracies to attack critics and destroy enemies. This paper examines whether Hoftstadter's 1965 thesis about a paranoid style in politics, formulated in light of U.S. history, is relevant in China.

Paper long abstract:

When CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping attacked an alleged conspiracy by a 'handful of senior officials pursuing selfish interests' in November 2016, he was not only alluding to yet another conspiracy against the Party, but also following in a long line of Chinese leaders who have invoked fear of such events to attack critics and destroy enemies, both real or perceived. The rise of social media including Weibo and WeChat has also allowed the rapid dissemination of other forms of conspiracy theories, most recently, that China is under threat from its Muslim citizens or dilution of the Chinese race from miscegenation with Africans. In light of such ubiquity, it would seem timely to examine whether Hoftstadter's 1965 thesis about a paranoid style in politics, formulated in light of American history, is relevant in China.

Paper short abstract:

Politics of denouncement has increased in volume and variety in response to crises in late-capitalist development. I focus on politics in Japan to ask whether politics of denouncement which may offer much justified criticism necessarily offers critical thinking and a progressive art of government.

Paper long abstract:

Is a genuinely progressive form of governance possible when politics is primarily about denouncing the Other? I here focus on issues of the Self and the State by looking at participatory politics of emerging publics in Japan. I explore questions about the progressiveness of the "anti-politics" position (James Ferguson) to illuminate how criticism and critical thinking are not automatically the same thing, but also how constant criticism affect governance. Political gain is increasingly obtained by creating mistrust of the Other with the "State" being presented as both the culprit and the saviour despite "it" being far from anything singular. Denunciatory politics create unity by creating a common adversary against which local populist activism can contest a US-led world order, for long intercepted with the US Security Alliance in Japan. War is the political ghost of the Japanese State, and the use of historical memory to undermine perceptions about the intention of the Other continues to shape people's imagined relationship to the State. Anyone who looks deeper into the politics of "pacifism" finds a hugely complex, contradictory and shifting picture overshadowed by potent phantoms created by dominant binary left-right ideologies. Based on long-term, first-hand research, I focus on the recent security debates to explore criticism of the "anti" politics position of the left. This is not because critique of the crises of the capitalist State is unjustified but because "pure critique" (Eva Illouz) itself seems to undermines democratic governance itself. This research also explores an influential alternative - politics of dialogue

Paper short abstract:

The intelligence community and other agents of the state have used mainstream media to limit and control public discourse. Evidence of direct involvement of these agents of power in the creation of memes such as "conspiracy theorist" and the use of memes to limit challenges to power is compelling.

Paper long abstract:

Politicians, the media and other agents of power often label those rejecting the official accounts of significant suspicious and impactful events as "conspiracy theorists" and their proposed alternative explanations as "conspiracy theories". Agents of power use these labels to dismiss the beliefs of those who question potential hegemonic control of what people believe.The conspiracy theory concept functions as an impediment to legitimate discursive examination of conspiracy suspicions. The effect of the label appears to constrain even the most respected thinkers. This impediment is particularly problematic in academia, where thorough, objective analysis of information is critical to uncovering truth, and where members of the academy are typically considered among the most important of epistemic authorities. This paper tracks the development and use of such terms as pejoratives used to shutdown critical thinking, analysis, and challenges to authority. The underlying research employed critical discourse analysis as a research methodology. Evidence suggesting government agents were instrumental in creating the pejorative meme "conspiracy theorist" has been found in contemporary media.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper contrasts concern with 'post-truth' politics in Western democratic systems with the importance of 'truth' in Iran's hybrid theocratic-democracy. I argue that even in this authoritarian polity, 'truthful' politics, so perceived, remains an indispensable quality of state legitimacy.

Paper long abstract:

Neither socialist nor liberal, Iran's hybrid demo-theocratic system is rarely held as a beacon of transparency or honesty in politics, and even less frequently included in discussions of 'post-truth politics'. A qualifier rather of Western democracies, swaying unsteadily against the winds of right-wing populism, the loss of the criterion of 'truth' in politics provides a seemingly potent opportunity to undermine the foundations of government of and by the people. Yet as we grapple with the emergence and ramifications of a supposedly Western democratic system in which the criterion of 'truth' in politics no longer matters, the Iranian public's concern for and expectation of veracity in political statements and the truthfulness of their leaders provides a confounding counterpoint. In Iran, the acolytes of Khomeini's 'Guardianship of Islamic Jurisprudence', itching for an 'absolute guardianship', are more than comfortable admitting that the norms of Western democratic politics - mass participation, a free and inquisitive press, etc. - are well and good, so long as they do not get in the way of divine dictate (hokme-khoda). What happens, then, when the unfettered rule of the Supreme Leader clashes with Iranians' commitment to truthful, if not democratic, rule? This presentation takes a contrastive study, exploring the dynamics of truth, falsehood, and the legitimacy of governance, in two Islamist families in Mashhad, the second largest of Iran's cities. In my address, I consider the necessity of democracy in a truthful polity, the necessity of truth in a democratic polity, and the redemptive potential of incredulity.

Paper short abstract:

Based on an analysis of China's National College Entrance Exam, this paper argues that state censorship is effective, but not for the reasons that many ordinarily assume. People in China suffer not so much from false consciousness, but from false confidence. They are cynical, but not cynical enough.

Paper long abstract:

Outside observers of China sometimes assume that media censorship and state propaganda result in the "brainwashing" of Chinese citizens. At least since the Lin Biao incident (1971), however, many in China have approached state pronouncements with a healthy dose of skepticism. Particularly in the post-Mao era of Reform and Opening (1978 to present), cynicism has become a dominant attitude of Chinese citizens toward state-sponsored information. At the same time, China seems to have undergone the kind of "performative shift" that characterized late Soviet society, and, increasingly, also characterizes late liberal societies (Yurchak/Boyer). But such concepts as "cynicism as ideology" (Žižek/Sloterdijk) or "performativity" (Yurchak/Austin) fail to capture the full complexity of Chinese state-society relations. Based on an analysis of state secrecy in the Chinese National College Entrance Examination, this paper argues that state censorship is effective, but not for the reasons that many ordinarily assume that it is. People in China suffer not so much from "false consciousness" but rather from false confidence. They are cynical, but perhaps not cynical enough. Simultaneously, they maintain a sincere belief in hard work, the family, true friendship, and the ultimate fairness of supernatural social arbiters such as fate and the gods. Meanwhile, state actors actively suppress data that would reveal the real extent of social inequality while producing a copious fog of statistical information that tells us little about what is actually going on. This pattern holds true in the realms of education, the environment, gender, and other areas.

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Paper short abstract:

Spreading through mass media, a recent social movement of students and women in India has gained considerable attention. This study offers a sympathetic critique of this movement through an analysis of online political behavior.

Paper long abstract:

The 'Pinjra Tod' movement in India has evolved through several stages of women's making claims on their right to occupy public spaces and students' protesting for their right to exercise political participation. With faster communication through internet posts, the question remains on how much we understand the perception and reaction of the general public throughout the life-course of an event. One way to approach the phenomenon is 'what' actually spreads as information. Any random observer has an equal access to counter-campaigning by campus political-party activists (allegedly state-affiliated) and the different versions of facts available in the traditional news and the social media. In light of this background, this study aims to analyze political discourse by examining several manifestations of the movement, including the 'presentation' of facts online, street performances, etc., demanding the government's attention.

The authors focus especially on women, who are resisting narrow state definitions of their 'rights'. Their message is a vision of establishing what they call 'equal rights' for students and self-dependent youth of India. The fact that these campaigns merged with several other on-campus 'flaming' issues raise questions about the role of homophily in face of exogenous effects (such as the state and its representatives) or a possible conflict between other underlying oppositions of values and sanctions of society. In this context, we attempt to understand the role of online networks in instigating political participation and polarization as opposed to cultural homogeneity.

Paper short abstract:

Planetary scale computing poses new challenges to states and the citizenry they administer. I assess the potential of Bratton's Stack to explain the response of states to these challenges through a 3D mapping project which re-engages citizen-users with the geometries of the state

Paper long abstract:

Planetary scale computing poses new challenges to nation states and the citizenry they administer. Google-Facebook-Twitter now authenticate citizens as users with a user's territorial belonging more a function of nearby sales opportunities than rights bestowed by place of birth. How nation states are responding to this shift from citizen to user, and what theoretical models adequately describe it, has yet to be fully explored. Benjamin Bratton (2016) calls this extra-territorial model, The Stack, an accidental megastructure of five layers: Earth, Cloud, City, Address, Interface and User. In this paper, I assess the potential of Bratton's Stack to explain the changing environment of states and the sorts of responses states are making to the rise of the user in an era of planetary scale computing. I describe a recent interactive mapping project by the Queensland Government called Globe 2.x which attempts to re-engage citizen-users with the geometries of the state, like property boundaries, land valuations, bores, and so on. In the analysis of this project I am interested in the authority the state seeks to maintain within its jurisdiction (geometries) alongside the authority it is prepared to cede to the Stack (authenticity of its citizenry).