https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6757-2167
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ABSTRACT
The emergence of ‘post-truth’ is often associated with the rise of conspiracy theories and the lack of trust in scientific knowledge. This article attempts to theorise the complex division of labour in this regime of ‘post-truth’, with reference to the COVID-19 pandemic/infodemic. First, we argue that the ‘post-truth’ condition mirrors what Foucault called the ‘will to truth’, and that this challenges the procedures and systems by which truth and knowledge are ordered. Second, through Basil Bernstein's extension of Foucault's work, we argue that the era of post-truth has two features regarding the condition of knowledge: (1) that conflicts in the field of knowledge recontextualisation, that is, the pedagogisation of knowledge, are becoming more intense and visible, and (2) that greater exposure to high-stakes, uncertain scientific knowledge, which grows at exponential rate, increases social anxieties and leads to biopoliticisation of neoliberal responsibilisation.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank two anonymous reviewers on their valuable feedback on the earlier manuscript of this article. The research is supported under the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project scheme, DP190100518 (Investigators: Singh, Exley, Heimans & Ivinson).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 In Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity, Bernstein acknowledges the influence of his former PhD students on his theoretical trajectory, including Parlo Singh from Australia, Mario Diaz from Colombia, Cristian Cox and John Swope from Chile (see Bernstein, Citation2000, pp. 115–120).