Media, politics and the public sphere currently undergo a process of post-bureaucratic transformation (comprehending among others: personalization, popularization, mediatization, marketization) which inevitably trigger forms of "collective speculation." Similar to speculation in finance, speculation in media and politics is a key factor of contemporary political crisis. The talk discusses new speculative forms and some of their effects, from the rise of populism to viral contagion in social media and the aggressive polarization of electorates.
Péter Csigó is a media and political sociologist, and the author of The Neopopular Bubble. Speculating on "the people" in Late Modern Democracy (CEU Press, 2016). He holds a PhD from ELTE. He is currently a research fellow at the Budapest University of Technology, Department of Sociology and Communications.
Péter Csigó's talk is part of the 2017-18 Contemporary Social Theory course in the Sociology and Anthropology Department. Contact: Alexandra Kowalski at kowalskia@ceu.edu