'We will multiply the fires of resistance': The catalysts of dissent against institutional science and their interplay with refused knowledge communities. (January 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bory, Paolo; Giardullo, Paolo; Tosoni, Simone; Turrini, Valentina
• Is Part Of: Public understanding of science. Volume 32:Number 1(2023)
• Page Start: 2
• Page End: 19
• Publication Date: 2023-01
• Subjects: Catalysts of dissent -- refused knowledge communities -- science-related populism -- No-5G -- free-vax -- 5 biological laws -- pandemic; Science news -- Periodicals; Science -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 303.483
• DOI: 10.1177/09636625221113524
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0963-6625

Abstract

Drawing on a 12-month virtual ethnography on the main online spaces of three refused knowledge communities (RKCs) in Italy, this study aims at contributing to the debate on emerging forms of science-related populism from a two-fold perspective. First, we identify and describe the main features and the role played by an understudied figure who we label the 'catalyst of dissent' – a public influencer who does not belong to the scientific community and contributes to the spread of science-related populist narratives within a grassroots ecosystem of resistance to institutional science. Second, our research highlights how RKCs – communities proposing visions of science and medicine denied acceptance or even consideration by institutional science – can appropriate some key resources produced by the catalysts. The analysis focuses on the interplay between the catalysts and three main RKCs during the pandemic crisis in Italy: The No-5G, the Free-Vax, and the 5 Biological Laws communities.