The Conspiracy Theory/Vaccine Hesitancy nexus as rhetorical boundary work. A critical analysis of the production of scientific ignorance in literature reviews

Abstract

Alamoodi A.H., Zaidan B.B., Al-Masawa M., Taresh S.M., Noman S., Ahmaro I.Y.Y., Garfan S., Chen J., Ahmed M.A., Zaidan A.A., Albahri O.S., Aickelin U., Thamir N.N., Fadhil J.A., Salahaldin A. (2021). Multi-Perspectives Systematic Review on the Applications of Sentiment Analysis for Vaccine Hesitancy. Computers in Biology and Medicine 139, 104957, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2021.104957

Beck, U. (1999). World Risk Society. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Bertuzzi, N. (2021). Conspiracy theories and social movements studies: A research agenda. Sociology Compass, 15(12), e12945. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12945

Billig, M. (2015). The myth of Kurt Lewin and the rhetoric of collective memory in social psychology textbooks. Theory & Psychology, 25(6), 703-718. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354315594255

Boullier, H., Kotras B., Siles I. (2021). Uncertain Knowledge. Studying “Truth” and “Conspiracies” in the Digital Age, RESET [En ligne], 10. https://doi.org/10.4000/reset.2750

Butter, M., & Knight, P. (2020). Conspiracy theory in historical, cultural and literary studies. In Butter, M., & Knight, P. (Eds.). Routledge handbook of conspiracy theories. (pp.28-42) London: Routledge

Carro, F., R. (2021). What is a scientific article? A principal-agent explanation. Social Studies of Science, 51(2), 298-309. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312720951860

Cervia, S. (2021) Scienza e claims-making: sull’esitazione vaccinale come “problema sociale”. In Pellizzoni, L., & Biancheri, R. Scienza in discussione?: dalla controversia sui vaccini all'emergenza Covid-19. (pp.115-150), Milano: Franco Angeli

Chowdhury, N., Khalid, A., & Turin, T. C. (2021). Understanding misinformation infodemic during public health emergencies due to large-scale disease outbreaks: a rapid review. Journal of Public Health From Theory to Practice, 1-21, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-021-01565-3

Cole, M., (1998) Cultural Psychology. A once and future discipline. Harvard: Harvard University Press

Croissant, J. L. (2018). Agnotology: Ignorance and Absence, or Towards a Sociology of Things that Aren’t There. In Meusburger, P., Heffernan, M., Suarsana, L., (Eds) Geographies of the University. Knowledge and Space, vol 12. (pp. 329-351). Cham: Springer https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75593-9_10

Dardot, P., Laval, C. (2016) The new way of the world: on neoliberal society. London: Verso

Dentith, M. R. (Ed.). (2018). Taking conspiracy theories seriously. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

Douglas, K. M., Uscinski, J. E., Sutton, R. M., Cichocka, A., Nefes, T., Ang, C. S., & Deravi, F. (2019). Understanding conspiracy theories. Political Psychology, 40, 3-35. http://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12568

Douglas, K. M., Sutton, R. M., & Cichocka, A. (2017). The psychology of conspiracy theories. Current directions in psychological science, 26(6), 538-542. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417718261

Fawcett, P., Flinders, M. V., Hay, C., & Wood, M. (Eds.). (2017). Anti-politics, depoliticization, and governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Fearnley, L. (2022). Agnotology of virology: The origins of Covid-19 and the next zoonotic pandemic. International Review of Environmental History, 8(1), 121-130. http://doi.org/10.22459/IREH.08.01.2022.08

Feola, G. (2020). Capitalism in sustainability transitions research: Time for a critical turn? Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 35, 241-250, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2019.02.005

Flier J., S. (2020) Covid-19 is reshaping the world of bioscience publishing. Statnews. https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/23/bioscience-publishing-reshaped-covid-19/, (visited 19/05/2022)

Florio, M. (2021). La privatizzazione della conoscenza: Tre proposte contro i nuovi oligopoli. Bari: Gius Laterza

Fonseca, P. F., Ribeiro, B. E., & Nascimento, L., F. (2022). Demarcating Patriotic Science on Digital Platforms: Covid-19, Chloroquine and the Institutionalisation of Ignorance in Brazil. Science as Culture, 31 (4), 530-554. https://doi.org/10.1080/09505431.2022.2105691

Fortaleza, C. M. C. B. (2020). Evidence, rationality, and ignorance: Agnotological issues in COVID-19 science. Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical, 53. https://doi.org/10.1590/0037-8682-0475-2020

Fortaleza, C. M. C. B. (2021). Emergency science: epistemological insights on the response to COVID-19 pandemics. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 42(1), 120-121. https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2020.209

French, J., Deshpande, S., Evans, W., and Obregon, R. (2020). Key Guidelines in Developing a Pre-Emptive COVID-19 Vaccination Uptake Promotion Strategy. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17(16):5893. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17165893

Frickel, S., Gibbon, S., Howard, J., Kempner, J., Ottinger, G., & Hess, D. J. (2010). Undone science: Charting social movement and civil society challenges to research agenda setting. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 35(4), 444-473. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243909345836

Fuchs, C. (2021). Communicating COVID-19: Everyday life, digital capitalism, and conspiracy theories in pandemic times. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing.

Gergen, K. J. (1973). Social psychology as history. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 26(2), 309–320. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0034436

Ghirotto, L. (2021). La systematic review nella ricerca qualitativa. Roma: Carocci

Gieryn, T., F. (1983). Boundary work and the demarcation of science from non-science: Strains and interests in professional ideologies of scientists. American sociological review. 48 (6) 781-795. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095325

Gieryn, T., F. (1999) Cultural Boundaries of Science: Credibility on the Line. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Goldenberg, M. J. (2021). Vaccine hesitancy: public trust, expertise, and the war on science. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.

Gómez‐Morales, Y. J. (2007). Science/Non‐Science and Boundary Work. In The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. Oxford: Blackwell

Gross, A. G., Harmon, J. E., Reidy, M., & Reidy, M. S. (2002). Communicating science: The scientific article from the 17th century to the present. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gross, M. (2007). The unknown in process: Dynamic connections of ignorance, non-knowledge and related concepts. Current sociology, 55(5), 742-759. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392107079928

Gross, M., & McGoey, L. (2015) (Eds) Routledge International Handbook of Ignorance Studies. London: Routledge.

Hammersley, M. (2013). The myth of research-based policy and practice. London: Sage

Hagen, K. (2022). Conspiracy Theories and the Failure of Intellectual Critique. University of Michigan Press. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.12089461

Harambam, J., & Aupers, S. (2015). Contesting epistemic authority: Conspiracy theories on the boundaries of science. Public understanding of science, 24(4): 466-480. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662514559891

Harambam, J. (2020). Contemporary conspiracy culture: Truth and knowledge in an era of epistemic instability. London: Routledge.

Harambam, J., Grusauskaite, K., & de Wildt, L. (2022). Poly-truth, or the limits of pluralism: Popular debates on conspiracy theories in a post-truth era. Public Understanding of Science, 31(6): 784–798. https://doi.org/10.1177/09636625221092145

Haraway, D., (1985) A manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, technology and social feminism in the 1980s. In: Trend, D., (Ed) Reading Digital Culture. (pp. 28–37) Oxford: Blackwell.

Hess, D. J. (2016). Undone science: Social movements, mobilized publics, and industrial transitions. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Hofstadter, R. (2012) [1967]. The paranoid style in American politics. Vintage.

Holmquest, A. (1990). The rhetorical strategy of boundary work. Argumentation, 4(3), 235-258. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00173966

Jameson, F. (1988). Cognitive mapping. In Nelson, C., and Grossberg, L., (Eds) Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. (pp 347-370). London: McMillian Education

Jamieson, K.H. (2021) How conspiracists exploited COVID-19 science. Nature and Human Behaviour. 5, 1464–1465. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01217-2

Janich, N., & Simmerling, A. (2015). Linguistics and ignorance. In Gross, M., and McGoey, L., (Eds) Routledge International Handbook of Ignorance Studies (pp. 125-137). London: Routledge.

Kirchherr, J. (2022). Bullshit in the Sustainability and Transitions Literature: a Provocation. Circular Economy and Sustainability, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43615-022-00175-9

Kourany, J., & Carrier, M. (2020). (Eds) Science and the production of ignorance: When the quest for knowledge is thwarted. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Lazić, A., Žeželj, I. (2021) A Systematic Review of Narrative Interventions: Lessons for Countering Anti-Vaccination Conspiracy Theories and Misinformation. Public Understanding of Science. 30(6). 644–670. https://doi.org/10.1177/09636625211011881

Latour, B. (1987). Science in action: How to follow scientists and engineers through society. Harvard: Harvard university press.

Latour, B. (2004). Why has critique run out of steam? From matters of fact to matters of concern. Critical inquiry, 30(2), 225-248.

Lello, E. (2020). Populismo anti-scientifico o nodi irrisolti della biomedicina? Prospettive a confronto intorno al movimento free vax. Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, 61(3), 479-508. https://doi.org/10.1423/98558

Leone, M. (Ed.). (2016). Complotto/Conspiracy. Lexia: International Journal of Semiotics. Roma: Aracne.

Lorenzini, D. (2016). Foucault, Regimes of Truth and the Making of the Subject. In Cremonesi, L., (Ed) Foucault and the Making of Subjects. (pp. 63-75). Lanahm: Rowman & Littlefield.

Magarini F.M., Pinelli M., Sinisi A., Ferrari S., De Fazio G.L., Galeazzi G.M (2021). Irrational Beliefs about COVID-19: A Scoping Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18(19), 9839; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18199839

Martin, B. (2015). On the suppression of vaccination dissent. Science and Engineering Ethics, 21(1), 143-157. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-014-9530-3

MacDonald, N. E. (2015). Vaccine hesitancy: Definition, scope and determinants. Vaccine, 33(34), 4161-4164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2015.04.036

McMahan, P., & McFarland, D. A. (2021). Creative destruction: The structural consequences of scientific curation. American Sociological Review, 86(2), 341-376. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122421996323

Oreskes, N., & Conway, E. M. (2010). Merchants of doubt: How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming. New York: Bloomsbury

Osimani, B., Ilardo, M. L., & Castaldo, P. (2020). Science as a Weapon of Mass Distraction. MEDIC. 28(1), 30-49.

Payberah, E., Payberah, D., Sarangi, A., Gude, J. (2022). COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Patients with Mental Illness: Strategies to Overcome Barriers—a Review. Journal of the Egyptian Public Health Association 97(1):5 https://doi.org/10.1186/s42506-022-00102-8

Pellizzoni, L. (2020). The time of emergency. On the governmental logic of preparedness, AIS (16). 39-54. https://doi.org/10.1485/2281-2652-202016-3

Pellizzoni, L., (2021) Pseudoscienza, post-verità, governo del disordine. L’esitazione vaccinale nel XXI secolo. In Pellizzoni, L., & Biancheri, R. (Eds) (2021). Scienza in discussione? Dalla controversia sui vaccini all'emergenza Covid-19. (pp. 31-52). Milano: Franco Angeli

Pellizzoni, L., & Biancheri, R. (Eds) (2021). Scienza in discussione? Dalla controversia sui vaccini all'emergenza Covid-19. Milano: Franco Angeli

Pellizzoni, L., & Sena, B. (2021). Preparedness as Governmentality. Probing the Italian Management of the Covid-19 Emergency. Sociologica, 15(3), 61-83. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1971-8853/13530

Pertwee, E., Simas, C. & Larson, H.J. (2022). An epidemic of uncertainty: rumors, conspiracy theories and vaccine hesitancy. Nature Medicine, 28, 456–459. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01728-z

Pinto, M., (2019). Scientific ignorance: Probing the limits of scientific research and knowledge production. Theoria. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science, 34(2), 195-211. https://doi.org/10.1387/theoria.19329.

Popper, K., (1966) The Open Society and Its Enemies, vol. 2, The High Tide of Prophecy: Hegel, Marx and the Aftermath, 5th ed. London: Routledge.

Proctor, R., N., and Galison, M., (2021). Agnotology in Action: A Dialogue. Cambridge: MIT press

Proctor, R., N., & Schiebinger, L. (2008). Agnotology: The making and unmaking of ignorance. Stanford: Stanford University Press

Raab, H., M., (2018) To Measure or Not to Measure? Psychometrics and Conspiracy Theories. In Dentith, M. R. (Ed) Taking conspiracy theories seriously. (pp.155-169). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

Roy, D. N., Biswas, M., Islam, E., Azam, S., (2022) Potential Factors Influencing COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance and Hesitancy: A Systematic Review. PLOS ONE, 17(3): e0265496. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265496

Shakeel, C., Mujeeb, A., Mirza, M., Chaudhry, B., e Khan, S. (2022). Global COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance: A Systematic Review of Associated Social and Behavioral Factors. Vaccines 10(1): 110. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10010110

Smithson, M. (1990). Ignorance and disasters. International journal of mass emergencies and disasters, 8(3), 207-235.

Stocking, S. H., & Holstein, L. W. (1993). Constructing and reconstructing scientific ignorance: Ignorance claims in science and journalism. Knowledge, 15(2), 186-210. https://doi.org/10.1177/107554709301500205

Sutton, R. M., & Douglas, K. M. (2022). Rabbit Hole Syndrome: Inadvertent, accelerating, and entrenched commitment to conspiracy beliefs. Current Opinion in Psychology, 48, 101462. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101462

Thalmann, K. (2019). The stigmatization of conspiracy theory since the 1950s:“A plot to make us look foolish”. London: Routledge.

Ullah I., Khan K.S., Tahir M.J., Ahmed A., Harapan H. (2021) Myths and Conspiracy Theories on Vaccines and COVID-19: Potential Effect on Global Vaccine Refusals. Vacunas, 22(2), 93–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vacun.2021.01.001 .

UNESCO (2022) Addressing conspiracy theories: what teachers need to know. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000381958 (last visit 25/09/2022)

van Mulukom V., Pummerer L.J., Alper S., Bai H., Čavojová V., Farias J., Kay C.S., Lazarevic L.B., Lobato E.J.C., Marinthe G., Pavela Banai I., Šrol J., Žeželj I. (2022). Antecedents and Consequences of COVID-19 Conspiracy Beliefs: A Systematic Review. Social Science & Medicine 301, 114912. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114912 .

Wang, Y., and Liu, Y., (2022) Multilevel Determinants of COVID-19 Vaccination Hesitancy in the United States: A Rapid Systematic Review. Preventive Medicine Reports 25:101673. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2021.101673 .

Wyatt, S., Milojević, S., Park, H. W., & Leydesdorff, L. (2016). The intellectual and practical contributions of scientometrics to STS. In Felt, U., Fouché, R., Miller, C. A., & Smith-Doerr, L. (Eds.). The handbook of science and technology studies. (pp. 87-112). Cambridge: MIT Press.

Wawrzuta, D., Jaworski, M., Gotlib, J., Panczyk, M., (2021) Characteristics of Antivaccine Messages on Social Media: Systematic Review. Journal Of Medical Internet Research, 23 (6), e24564. http://doi.org/10.2196/24564

Wehling, P., (2021) Why Science Does Not Know: A Brief History of (the Notion of) Scientific Ignorance in the Twentieth and Early Twenty-First Centuries. Journal for the History of Knowledge 2 (1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.5334/jhk.40

WHO (2019) https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlight/ten-threats-to-global-health-in-2019. (last visit 25/09/2022)