The project registration number and the full name of the organisation that awarded the grant:

APVV 20-0334, Slovak Research and Development Agency

Name of the project:

"This is Not True, but it Could Be": Conspiracy Theories and Hoaxes in the Modern Development of Slovakia in the European Context

Project implementation period:

07/21-06/25

Status in the project: 

Co-researcher

Brief characteristics of the project:

Conspiracy theories and hoaxes are far from having the character of an innocent disruptive elements of the farright or ultra-left scene. They both are also a serious security threat - they are an imaginary detonator of social tension, have the potential to lead to fundamental polarization and radicalization of society, which can grow into deep internal social conflicts, violence, ethnic cleansing, genocide or even civil wars and the disruption of social consensus (i.e. existing state borders, a new geopolitical reorganization of the world, etc.). This broad-spectrum dimension, stimulated a team of 25 experts in history, political science, ethnology, religion and security studies from three Slovak universities (UMB Banská Bystrica, UKF Nitra, UPJŠ Košice), two university-type academies (AOS Liptovský Mikuláš, APZ Bratislava) and two Slovak Academy of Sciences institutes (Institute of Political Science, Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology) to create a joint project platform and try to seek for a new perspective and a new contextualization of their significance. Project's ambition is to analyze the history of conspiracy theories and hoaxes in Slovakia in European context from 1918 to nowadays as well as the attempt to symbolically “bridge” past and present which has an aspiration to analytically contribute to discussion of one of the most discussed phenomenon of the 21st Century.

Link (hyperlink) to the project:

https://www.fpvmv.umb.sk/nie-je-to-pravda-ale-mohla-by-byt-konspiracne-teorie-a-hoaxy-v-modernom-vyvoji-slovenska-v-europskom-kontexte