The quest for scientific standards now operates against the background of debates on 'fake news' and ‘post-truth’, which raise pressing and perplexing questions for critical lines of thought. Starting from debates in International Relations and Critical Security Studies, this lecture proposed an approach that, instead of looking for rigorous scientific standards for validating truth claims, conceptualized validity as practices of assembling credibility. Such an approach allows for understanding validity as a socio-political rather than strictly scientific accomplishment. The assembling of credibility combines the transversal formation and circulation of credits and credentials with disputes over credence and credulity. Developing such an understanding of validity makes it possible to displace epistemic disputes about ‘(post-)truth’ with critical analyses of transversal practices of knowledge creation, circulation, and accreditation.
Schedule
17:20-17:30
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17:30-17:35
Welcome and Introductory Remarks
Dr Stephan Scheel
Junior Professor for Transnational Cooperation and Migration Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen
17:35-18:15
40th Käte Hamburger Lecture
Truth or Post-truth? Let’s Go Credibility
Dr Jef Huysmans
Professor of International Politics at Queen Mary University of London and Co-Convenor of the research group Doing International Political Sociology
Discussant: Dr Noortje Marres
Professor and Director at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies at the University of Warwick
Moderator: Dr Stephan Scheel
18:15-18:45
Q&A with the Audience
18:45
Concluding Remarks and End of the Lecture
