Stef Auper
Biographic Data
| ID | 100606 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Stef Auper |
| GIVEN NAMES | Stef |
| FAMILY NAME | Auper |
| SIGNATURE | AUPER S |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 355 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Reactionary Exiles. How Conspiracy Theorists Deal with Socio-Technological Exclusion
Due to growing public concerns regarding the consequences of disinformation and conspiracy theories, major tech companies have introduced policies to curtail them on their platforms. Until now, the academic debate has largely focused on whether these punitive policies are effective. In this study, we address the question of how de-platformed 'conspiracy theorists' themselves experience and deal with such socio-technological exclusion. Drawing on …
Picturing Opaque Power
Conspiracy theories were once perceived as delusions of individuals on the fringes of society, but have become commonplace in mainstream culture. Today, they are produced, consumed, and circulated on various online media environments. From memes on 4chan, QAnon influencers on Instagram, to flat earth or antivaxx videos on YouTube, modern-day conspiracy culture embodies compelling mediated images and narratives that are composed of various audiovi…
Conspiracy Theories
Conspiracy theories are an integral part of contemporary societies, yet sociological research on the topic is still scarce. This is particularly problematic because conspiracy theories are not just theoretical ideas formulated in the abstract but are lived social and cultural phenomena that beg for more sociological analysis and explanation. In this entry, we review the history of the academic study of conspiracy theories, moving from pathologiza…
Things Greater than Thou
In the literature on religion in games, two broad types of religion have been depicted: on the one hand, historical religions-Christian, Muslim and Buddhist narratives, tropes and symbols-and, on the other hand, fiction-based religion, referring to fantasy, myth and popular culture. In this article we aim to describe, analyze and explain the emergence of a new, unacknowledged repertoire. Building on two case studies-Fallout 3 and Horizon: Zero Da…
I Am Not a Conspiracy Theorist
Despite their popularity and normalization, the public image of conspiracy theory remains morally tainted. Academics contribute by conceiving of conspiracy theorists as a coherent collective: internal variety is sacrificed for a clear external demarcation. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the Netherlands, we explore variation in the conspiracy milieu through people's own self-understanding. More particularly, we study how these people identif…
Becoming politically discontented
Popular political discontent has become increasingly salient in western countries in recent decades, as can be witnessed by the rise of populist anti-establishment parties, nonvoting and increasing distrust in politics. However, these phenomena have predominantly been treated as 'democracy's deviants', neglecting the perspectives of the people concerned. Taking an inductive approach, this article examines how ordinary citizens come to turn away f…
State of Disgrace
While it is widely acknowledged that politics and politicians have fallen from grace among large parts of the public in western democracies, it is less clear what the latter’s political discontents are about. To find out, we performed an interpretative content analysis of the letters to the editor of the largest popular Dutch newspaper in the 2000s (2000–2009). \n \nIt yielded three empirically grounded discourses of political discontents about ‘…
Negotiating Gender through Fun and Play
The Red Hat Society (RHS) is a relatively new and international women's network that offers "fun" and "friendship" specifically for women over fifty. Its members, the Red Hatters, are easily recognized in the streets by their red hats and otherwise purple attire, giving the RHS its unique flavor of leisure combined with expressive public performance. In this article, we use interviews and observations to study how the fun experiences aimed at by …
A Cultural Globalization of Popular Music? American, Dutch, French, and German Popular Music Charts (1965 to 2006)
In this article, the authors address the question of whether and how the appreciation of popular music consumers has globalized in the four decades since the mid-1960s. They use information from American, Dutch, French, and German popular music charts from 1965 through 2006. They find no corroboration for an overall trend toward an internationalization of hits. However, important shifts are noticeable underneath the surface. For the period up unt…
A Christian Cancellation of the Secularist Truce? Waning Christian Religiosity and Waxing Religious Deprivatization in the West
Analysis of International Social Survey Program (ISSP) data collected in 18 Western countries in 1998 demonstrates that Christian desires for a public role of religion are strongest in countries where Christian religiosity is numerically most marginal. Moreover, Dutch data covering the period 1970-1996 confirm that the decline of the number of Christians in the Netherlands has been coincided by a strengthening of the call for public religion amon…
Christian Religiosity and New Age Spirituality
sponsorship: The authors thank Roy Kemmers for this research assistance
The Spiritual Turn and the Decline of Tradition
This article uses data from the World Values Survey to study the spread of post-Christian spirituality ('New Age') in 14 Western countries (1981-2000, N = 61,352). It demonstrates that this type of spirituality, characterized by a sacralization of the self, has become more widespread during the period 1981-2000 in most of these countries. It has advanced farthest in France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Sweden. This spiritual turn proves a …
Beyond the Spiritual Supermarket
This article argues that New Age spirituality is substantially less unambiguously individualistic and more socially and publicly significant than today's sociological consensus acknowledges. Firstly, an uncontested doctrine of self-spirituality, characterised by sacralisation of the self and demonisation of social institutions, provides the spiritual milieu with ideological coherence and paradoxically accounts for its overwhelming diversity. Seco…
The Spiritual Turn and the Decline of Tradition
This article uses data from the World Values Survey to study the spread of post-Christian spirituality ('New Age') in 14 Western countries (1981-2000, N = 61,352). It demonstrates that this type of spirituality, characterized by a sacralization of the self, has become more widespread during the period 1981-2000 in most of these countries. It has advanced farthest in France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Sweden. This spiritual turn proves a …
Beyond the Spiritual Supermarket
This article argues that New Age spirituality is substantially less unambiguously individualistic and more socially and publicly significant than today's sociological consensus acknowledges. Firstly, an uncontested doctrine of self-spirituality, characterised by sacralisation of the self and demonisation of social institutions, provides the spiritual milieu with ideological coherence and paradoxically accounts for its overwhelming diversity. Seco…
I Am Not a Conspiracy Theorist
Despite their popularity and normalization, the public image of conspiracy theory remains morally tainted. Academics contribute by conceiving of conspiracy theorists as a coherent collective: internal variety is sacrificed for a clear external demarcation. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the Netherlands, we explore variation in the conspiracy milieu through people's own self-understanding. More particularly, we study how these people identif…
A Christian Cancellation of the Secularist Truce? Waning Christian Religiosity and Waxing Religious Deprivatization in the West
Analysis of International Social Survey Program (ISSP) data collected in 18 Western countries in 1998 demonstrates that Christian desires for a public role of religion are strongest in countries where Christian religiosity is numerically most marginal. Moreover, Dutch data covering the period 1970-1996 confirm that the decline of the number of Christians in the Netherlands has been coincided by a strengthening of the call for public religion amon…
A Cultural Globalization of Popular Music? American, Dutch, French, and German Popular Music Charts (1965 to 2006)
In this article, the authors address the question of whether and how the appreciation of popular music consumers has globalized in the four decades since the mid-1960s. They use information from American, Dutch, French, and German popular music charts from 1965 through 2006. They find no corroboration for an overall trend toward an internationalization of hits. However, important shifts are noticeable underneath the surface. For the period up unt…
Becoming politically discontented
Popular political discontent has become increasingly salient in western countries in recent decades, as can be witnessed by the rise of populist anti-establishment parties, nonvoting and increasing distrust in politics. However, these phenomena have predominantly been treated as 'democracy's deviants', neglecting the perspectives of the people concerned. Taking an inductive approach, this article examines how ordinary citizens come to turn away f…
State of Disgrace
While it is widely acknowledged that politics and politicians have fallen from grace among large parts of the public in western democracies, it is less clear what the latter’s political discontents are about. To find out, we performed an interpretative content analysis of the letters to the editor of the largest popular Dutch newspaper in the 2000s (2000–2009). \n \nIt yielded three empirically grounded discourses of political discontents about ‘…
Christian Religiosity and New Age Spirituality
sponsorship: The authors thank Roy Kemmers for this research assistance
Things Greater than Thou
In the literature on religion in games, two broad types of religion have been depicted: on the one hand, historical religions-Christian, Muslim and Buddhist narratives, tropes and symbols-and, on the other hand, fiction-based religion, referring to fantasy, myth and popular culture. In this article we aim to describe, analyze and explain the emergence of a new, unacknowledged repertoire. Building on two case studies-Fallout 3 and Horizon: Zero Da…
Negotiating Gender through Fun and Play
The Red Hat Society (RHS) is a relatively new and international women's network that offers "fun" and "friendship" specifically for women over fifty. Its members, the Red Hatters, are easily recognized in the streets by their red hats and otherwise purple attire, giving the RHS its unique flavor of leisure combined with expressive public performance. In this article, we use interviews and observations to study how the fun experiences aimed at by …
Picturing Opaque Power
Conspiracy theories were once perceived as delusions of individuals on the fringes of society, but have become commonplace in mainstream culture. Today, they are produced, consumed, and circulated on various online media environments. From memes on 4chan, QAnon influencers on Instagram, to flat earth or antivaxx videos on YouTube, modern-day conspiracy culture embodies compelling mediated images and narratives that are composed of various audiovi…
Conspiracy Theories
Conspiracy theories are an integral part of contemporary societies, yet sociological research on the topic is still scarce. This is particularly problematic because conspiracy theories are not just theoretical ideas formulated in the abstract but are lived social and cultural phenomena that beg for more sociological analysis and explanation. In this entry, we review the history of the academic study of conspiracy theories, moving from pathologiza…
Reactionary Exiles. How Conspiracy Theorists Deal with Socio-Technological Exclusion
Due to growing public concerns regarding the consequences of disinformation and conspiracy theories, major tech companies have introduced policies to curtail them on their platforms. Until now, the academic debate has largely focused on whether these punitive policies are effective. In this study, we address the question of how de-platformed 'conspiracy theorists' themselves experience and deal with such socio-technological exclusion. Drawing on …
Beyond the Spiritual Supermarket
This article argues that New Age spirituality is substantially less unambiguously individualistic and more socially and publicly significant than today's sociological consensus acknowledges. Firstly, an uncontested doctrine of self-spirituality, characterised by sacralisation of the self and demonisation of social institutions, provides the spiritual milieu with ideological coherence and paradoxically accounts for its overwhelming diversity. Seco…
The Spiritual Turn and the Decline of Tradition
This article uses data from the World Values Survey to study the spread of post-Christian spirituality ('New Age') in 14 Western countries (1981-2000, N = 61,352). It demonstrates that this type of spirituality, characterized by a sacralization of the self, has become more widespread during the period 1981-2000 in most of these countries. It has advanced farthest in France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Sweden. This spiritual turn proves a …
A Christian Cancellation of the Secularist Truce? Waning Christian Religiosity and Waxing Religious Deprivatization in the West
Analysis of International Social Survey Program (ISSP) data collected in 18 Western countries in 1998 demonstrates that Christian desires for a public role of religion are strongest in countries where Christian religiosity is numerically most marginal. Moreover, Dutch data covering the period 1970-1996 confirm that the decline of the number of Christians in the Netherlands has been coincided by a strengthening of the call for public religion amon…
Christian Religiosity and New Age Spirituality
sponsorship: The authors thank Roy Kemmers for this research assistance
A Cultural Globalization of Popular Music? American, Dutch, French, and German Popular Music Charts (1965 to 2006)
In this article, the authors address the question of whether and how the appreciation of popular music consumers has globalized in the four decades since the mid-1960s. They use information from American, Dutch, French, and German popular music charts from 1965 through 2006. They find no corroboration for an overall trend toward an internationalization of hits. However, important shifts are noticeable underneath the surface. For the period up unt…
Negotiating Gender through Fun and Play
The Red Hat Society (RHS) is a relatively new and international women's network that offers "fun" and "friendship" specifically for women over fifty. Its members, the Red Hatters, are easily recognized in the streets by their red hats and otherwise purple attire, giving the RHS its unique flavor of leisure combined with expressive public performance. In this article, we use interviews and observations to study how the fun experiences aimed at by …
State of Disgrace
While it is widely acknowledged that politics and politicians have fallen from grace among large parts of the public in western democracies, it is less clear what the latter’s political discontents are about. To find out, we performed an interpretative content analysis of the letters to the editor of the largest popular Dutch newspaper in the 2000s (2000–2009). \n \nIt yielded three empirically grounded discourses of political discontents about ‘…
Becoming politically discontented
Popular political discontent has become increasingly salient in western countries in recent decades, as can be witnessed by the rise of populist anti-establishment parties, nonvoting and increasing distrust in politics. However, these phenomena have predominantly been treated as 'democracy's deviants', neglecting the perspectives of the people concerned. Taking an inductive approach, this article examines how ordinary citizens come to turn away f…
I Am Not a Conspiracy Theorist
Despite their popularity and normalization, the public image of conspiracy theory remains morally tainted. Academics contribute by conceiving of conspiracy theorists as a coherent collective: internal variety is sacrificed for a clear external demarcation. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the Netherlands, we explore variation in the conspiracy milieu through people's own self-understanding. More particularly, we study how these people identif…
Things Greater than Thou
In the literature on religion in games, two broad types of religion have been depicted: on the one hand, historical religions-Christian, Muslim and Buddhist narratives, tropes and symbols-and, on the other hand, fiction-based religion, referring to fantasy, myth and popular culture. In this article we aim to describe, analyze and explain the emergence of a new, unacknowledged repertoire. Building on two case studies-Fallout 3 and Horizon: Zero Da…
Conspiracy Theories
Conspiracy theories are an integral part of contemporary societies, yet sociological research on the topic is still scarce. This is particularly problematic because conspiracy theories are not just theoretical ideas formulated in the abstract but are lived social and cultural phenomena that beg for more sociological analysis and explanation. In this entry, we review the history of the academic study of conspiracy theories, moving from pathologiza…
Picturing Opaque Power
Conspiracy theories were once perceived as delusions of individuals on the fringes of society, but have become commonplace in mainstream culture. Today, they are produced, consumed, and circulated on various online media environments. From memes on 4chan, QAnon influencers on Instagram, to flat earth or antivaxx videos on YouTube, modern-day conspiracy culture embodies compelling mediated images and narratives that are composed of various audiovi…
Reactionary Exiles. How Conspiracy Theorists Deal with Socio-Technological Exclusion
Due to growing public concerns regarding the consequences of disinformation and conspiracy theories, major tech companies have introduced policies to curtail them on their platforms. Until now, the academic debate has largely focused on whether these punitive policies are effective. In this study, we address the question of how de-platformed 'conspiracy theorists' themselves experience and deal with such socio-technological exclusion. Drawing on …
Sociology (10 works) · Law (7 works) · Political science (6 works) · Social science (6 works) · Aesthetics (5 works) · Politics (5 works) · Art (4 works) · Literature (4 works) · Misinformation and Its Impacts (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works)