Stef Aupers

TL;DR: This article used data from the World Values Survey to study the spread of post-Christian spirituality in 14 Western countries (1981•2000, N = 61,352) and found 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.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that New Age spirituality is substantially less unambiguously individualistic and more socially and publicly significant than today's sociological consensus acknowledges, and propose a radical socologisation of New Age research to document how the doctrinal ideal of self-spirituality is socially constructed, transmitted, and reinforced and critically to deconstruct rather than re...

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that New Age spirituality is substantially less unambiguously individualistic and more socially and publicly significant than today's sociological consensus acknowledges, and propose a radical socologisation of New Age research to document how the doctrinal ideal of self-spirituality is socially constructed, transmitted, and reinforced and critically to deconstruct rather than re...

TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that conspiracy culture is a radical and generalized manifestation of distrust that is embedded in the cultural logic of modernity and, ultimately, produced by processes of modernization, in particular epistemological doubts about the validity of scientific knowledge claims, ontological insecurity about rationalized social systems like the state, multinationals and the media.

TL;DR: It is concluded that conspiracy theorists compete with (social) scientists in complex battles for epistemic authority in a broader field of knowledge contestation.