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A Political Theory of Post-Truth

  • Book
  • © 2019

Overview

Authors:
  1. Ignas Kalpokas

    1. Department of Social Sciences, LCC International University, Klaipeda, Lithuania

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  • Presents a significant theoretical contribution to the academic debate on post-truth
  • Resists any overly positive or negative description of post-truth, and any direct alignment with a political or ideological reading
  • Draws on a plurality of perspectives, including media and communications studies, political theory and philosophy

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Table of contents (5 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
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  2. Introduction

    • Ignas Kalpokas
    Pages 1-8

  3. Post-truth: The Condition of Our Times

    • Ignas Kalpokas
    Pages 9-49

  4. Enabling Post-truth: Mediatisation and Affect

    • Ignas Kalpokas
    Pages 51-85

  5. Making the Theory Political

    • Ignas Kalpokas
    Pages 87-121

  6. Conclusion: For Unto Us Post-truth Is Born

    • Ignas Kalpokas
    Pages 123-130

  7. Back Matter

    Pages 131-135
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Keywords

About this book

This book combines political theory with media and communications studies in order to formulate a theory of post-truth, concentrating on the latter’s preconditions, context, and functions in today’s societies. Contrary to the prevalent view of post-truth as primarily manipulative, it is argued that post-truth is, instead, a collusion in which audiences willingly engage with aspirational narratives co-created with the communicators. Meanwhile, the broader meta-framework for post-truth is provided by mediatisation—increasing subjection of a variety of social spheres to media logic and the primacy of media in everyday human activities. Ultimately, post-truth is governed by collective efforts to maximise the pleasure of encountering the world and attempts to set hegemonic benchmarks for such pleasure.

Reviews

“In A Political Theory of Post-Truth, Ignas Kalpokas offers a nuanced and lucid description of the conditions and content of a post-truth world, drawing particularly on the work of the seventeen-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza with support from the twentieth-century post-structuralist Gilles Deleuze. Going beyond cliches and superficial diagnosis, this is a perceptive, yet alarming, vision of an ever-more embedded post-truth future … .” (Roderick Howlett, LSE Review of Books, blogs.lse.ac.uk, February, 2019)​ “Ignas Kalpokas’s volume supplies us with one of the best attempts aimed at precisely defining a political theory of post-truth. By analysing how post-truth narratives affect the mediatised arenas of contemporary democracies, Kalpokas succeeds to shed light on the reasons that have made post-truth so popular, including the blurring of empirical facts (i.e., truth) and the spreading of media logic in both individual and social spheres. For these and many other reasons, this book represents an indispensable instrument for understanding how post-truth narratives produce dramatic political effects in our mediatised societies.” (Flavio Chiapponi, University of Pavia, Italy)

“Drawing from a plurality of perspectives, ranging from political theory to media studies, in this timely book Kalpokas offers the most thorough theoretical discussion of post-truth currently available. Rather than simply providing a negative description, or an ideologically oriented reading, the author weaves a rich and nuanced analysis of the phenomenon by examining its affective and symbolic dimensions, and rooting his interpretation of post-truth in the still-relevant philosophical work of Baruch Spinoza.” (Gabriele Cosentino, Lebanese American University, Lebanon)  

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Social Sciences, LCC International University, Klaipeda, Lithuania

    Ignas Kalpokas

About the author

Ignas Kalpokas is Assistant Professor of International Relations and Development in the Department of Social Sciences at LCC International University, Lithuania, and Lecturer in the Department of Public Communication at Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania.

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