Conspiracy, Controversy, and the Classroom: Exploring the Prevalence and Significance of Conspiracy Theories among Youth Cultures in London

Abstract

This thesis explores the prevalence and significance of conspiratorial thinking among youth cultures in London. Through an interdisciplinary engagement with a range of theories and debates, I identify a gap in these literatures in terms of investigating the impact of conspiracy theories on youth cultures, as well as gaps in the literature on teaching controversial issues in relation to conspiracy theories. By conducting a philosophically grounded qualitative study on two school sites with very different socioeconomic and ethnic mixes, I focused on the experiences of young people as they pertained to conspiracy theories, wider issues of controversy, and education. The ethnography, which employed thematic analysis combined with sociocultural discourse analysis, therefore aimed for a deeper treatment of how young people themselves articulate their perceptions of conspiracy theories and how these relate to belonging or marginalisation. This was achieved through utilising a range of ethnographic research methods including semi-structured and unstructured interviews, student workshops, shadowing participants on site, lesson observations and curriculum analyses, visual voice projects, and online discussion groups. My findings from the ethnographic study highlighted the difficulty of separating conspiracy theories from wider epistemic clashes that are so prevalent in the life experiences of young people. This led me to draw on the work of R.M. Hare and reconceptualise conspiracy theories as bliks, unfalsifiable but meaningful worldviews, which allows us to move beyond the epistemic and consider the existential and social dimensions that I found to be at the heart of conspiracy theorising. In conclusion, this study looks to Arendtian ‘agonistic pluralism’ for an expanded discourse in educational spaces to help support fully the teaching and learning about conspiracy theories through a ‘particularist’ lens in terms of pedagogy, pastoral care, and school ethos, in the spirit of what Paul Ricœur has called a ‘genuine discourse’.