Greg Philo (1947-2024) – Researcher, Mentor, above all an empirical sociologist
I first met Greg in the summer of 1985 just after I had finished my first degree. I walked into his office, knocked on...
Resuscitating the Comatose: The Defibrillating Fine Art of John Whitehead
Introduction
Michelangelo mastered mannerism, Georges Seurat pointillism, Vincent Van Gogh impressionism, Edvard Munch expressionism, and Pablo Picasso cubism. The multiplicity of movements developed by countless...
The Conspiracy Label as a Tool of Propaganda, Part III: The CIA and Reification...
Note from the Editors: This article is the third installment of a series on how and why “conspiracy theory/ist” became a common pejorative label....
The End of Canada: The Shift from Democracy to Totalitarian Behaviour in the ‘Pandemic...
Introduction
March 2024 marks the fourth anniversary of one of the most disastrous assaults on human rights in Canadian history. This assault was in synch...
Misinformation or Public Debate?
Introduction
In recent years, there has been an upsurge of concern about online misinformation and disinformation, with efforts to thwart it. In many cases, claims...
Orisanmi Burton’s ‘Tip of the Spear’: a review by Professor Jared Ball
I decenter these duly noted, juridically mediated, and scholastically authorized sources of evidence, focussing instead on “discredited,” “inadmissible,” and “untrustworthy” modes of knowledge, analysis...
The Johan Galtung Approach to Taboo Topics
Published simultaneously with The International Center for 9/11 Justice
A topic that is virtually never allowed to be addressed within the hallowed halls of academia...
The Tail Wags the Dog: Governance by Narrative Control
Propaganda is endemic to politics, economics, and culture in mass society. Any attempt to make sense of the modern world must take propaganda into...
Engineering Compliance: From Climate to Covid and Back Again
Introduction
From early in the pandemic, commentators were quick to make connections between Covid-19 and climate change. In March 2020, for example, Scientific American explained...
The Real Problem of Disinformation
According to the UK Government, which has set up a dedicated Counter-Disinformation Unit, there is a ‘danger that hostile actors use online disinformation to undermine our...