Bücher von Michael Butter

Plots, Designs, and Schemes is the first study that investigates the long history of American conspiracy theories from the perspective of literary and cultural studies. Since research in these fields has so far almost exclusively focused on the contemporary period, the book concentrates on the time before 1960. Four detailed case studies offer close readings of the Salem witchcraft crisis of 1692, fears of Catholic invasion during the 1830s to 1850s, antebellum conspiracy theories about slavery, and anxieties about Communist subversion during the 1950s. The study primarily engages with factual texts, such as sermons, pamphlets, political speeches, and confessional narratives, but it also analyzes how fears of conspiracy were dramatized and negotiated in fictional texts, such as Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown (1835) or Hermann Melville's Benito Cereno (1855). The book offers three central insights: 1. The American predilection for conspiracy theorizing can be traced back to the co-presence and persistence of a specific epistemological paradigm that relates all effects to intentional human action, the ideology of republicanism, and the Puritan heritage. 2. Until far into the twentieth century, conspiracy theories were considered a perfectly legitimate form of knowledge. As such, they shaped how many Americans, elites as well as "e;common"e; people, understood and reacted to historical events. The Revolutionary War and the Civil War would not have occurred without widespread conspiracy theories. 3. Although most extant research claims the opposite, conspiracy theories have never been as marginal and unimportant as in the past decades. Their disqualification as stigmatized knowledge only occurred around 1960, and coincided with a shift from theories that detect conspiracies directed against the government to conspiracies by the government.

Covid Conspiracy Theories in Global Perspective examines how conspiracy theories and related forms of misinformation and disinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic have circulated widely around the world.Covid conspiracy theories have attracted considerable attention from researchers, journalists, and politicians, not least because conspiracy beliefs have the potential to negatively affect adherence to public health measures. While most of this focus has been on the United States and Western Europe, this collection provides a unique global perspective on the emergence and development of conspiracy theories through a series of case studies. The chapters have been commissioned by recognized experts on area studies and conspiracy theories.The chapters present case studies on how Covid conspiracism has played out (some focused on a single country, others on regions), using a range of methods from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including history, politics, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. Collectively, the authors reveal that, although there are many narratives that have spread virally, they have been adapted for different uses and take on different meanings in local contexts.This volume makes an important contribution to the rapidly expanding field of academic conspiracy theory studies, as well as being of interest to those working in the media, regulatory agencies, and civil society organizations, who seek to better understand the problem of how and why conspiracy theories spread.The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Conspiracy Theories in the United States and the Middle East is the first book to approach conspiracy theorizing from a decidedly comparative and interdisciplinary perspective. Whereas previous studies have engaged with conspiracy theories within national frameworks only, this collection of essays draws attention to the fact that conspiracist visions are transnational narratives that travel between and connect different cultures. It focuses on the United States and the Middle East because these two regions of the world are entangled in manifold ways and conspiracy theories are currently extremely prominent in both. The contributors to the volume are scholars of Middle Eastern Studies, Anthropology, History, Political Science, Cultural Studies, and American Studies, who approach the subject from a variety of different theories and methodologies. However, all of them share the fundamental assumption that conspiracy theories must not be dismissed out of hand or ridiculed. Usually wrong and frequently dangerous, they are nevertheless articulations of and distorted responses to needs and anxieties that must be taken seriously. Focusing on individual case studies and displaying a high sensitivity for local conditions and the cultural environment, the essays offer a nuanced image of the workings of conspiracy theories in the United States and the Middle East.

Seit 2015 Hunderttausende Flüchtlinge in die Bundesrepublik kamen, kursiert im Netz die Theorie vom »Großen Austausch«: Das Land solle von einer globalen »Finanzoligarchie« mittels der »Migrationswaffe« ausgeschaltet werden. Neben mangelndem Vertrauen in die Politik ist der Glaube an Verschwörungstheorien ein Merkmal des populistischen Brodelns. Doch was macht eine Erklärung zu einer Verschwörungstheorie? Warum sind sie für viele so attraktiv? Und was kann man dagegen unternehmen? Antworten auf solche Fragen findet man seltener als Verschwörungstheorien selbst. Michael Butter erläutert, wie solche Erzählungen funktionieren, wo sie herkommen und welche Auswirkungen sie haben können. Da sie die Eigenlogik sozialer Systeme unterschätzten, seien solche Theorien zwar immer falsch; als Symptom müsse man sie dennoch ernstnehmen. Gegenwärtig seien sie ein Indikator für die demokratiegefährdende Fragmentierung der Öffentlichkeit.

Die Arbeit wurde vom Fachbereich Rechtswissenschaft der Universität Hamburg im Winter­ semester 199912000 als Dissertation angenommen. Sie stellt eine interdisziplinäre Abhandlung dar, die das Phänomen des Time-Sharing sowohl aus ökonomischer als auch aus juristischer Perspektive beleuchtet. An erster Stelle danke ich meinen Eltern von ganzem Herzen für ihre unermüdliche und liebe­ volle Unterstützung, die nicht nur dieses Buch, sondern meine gesamte Ausbildung erst ermög­ licht hat. Sie sind mir stets ein leuchtendes Vorbild und ich verdanke Ihnen viel mehr, als ein Mensch in der Lage ist, in Worte zu fassen. Die Dissertation entstand zum überwiegenden Teil während meiner Tätigkeit am Institut für Recht und Ökonomik am Fachbereich Rechtswissenschaft der Universität Hamburg unter der Aufsicht von Herrn Prof Dr. Claus Oft. Ihm verdanke ich nicht nur die wohl einmalige Aus­ bildung im Wahlschwerpunkt Handel während meines Studiums, sondern auch eine interessante und lehrreiche Zeit als wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter im internationalen Erasmus Programm "Lawand Economics". Für die schnelle Erstellung des Zweitgutachtens und seine inhaltliche Unterstützung im ökono­ mischen Teil der Arbeit sei Herrn Prof Dr. Hans-Bernd Schäfer recht herzlich gedankt. Mein Dank gilt ferner meinen Weggeflihrten vom Institut für Recht und Ökonomik Ute Lewin, Peter Camesasca, Tina Neuling, Dirk Gehl, Andreas Schönenberger und Dr. Georg von Wan­ genheim, mit denen ich viele arbeitsintensive aber auch sehr heitere Stunden verbringen durfte.