Post-Truth: A World Tour

The impression that we are witnessing a shift to a new regime of truth is not new. However, the concept of « post-truth » was only popularized in 2016, a year marked by Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States. That year, the concept of post-truth (postfaktisch [post-factual] in German) was voted word of the year by both the Oxford Dictionary and the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (Association for the German Language). Since then, there has been an outpouring of work on the subject.

The 9 interviews gathered in this dossier reinforce the opinion that a detached reflection on the post-truth phenomenon is urgent, as much for academics as for citizens. The global tour of the subject that we propose here, although inevitably incomplete, aims to pool our knowledge and broaden the debate on a global scale. Geographical and cultural differences cannot be ignored in the study of « post-truth. » It is also important to keep in mind that post-truth varies according to gender, class, social norms, modes of access to information, institutions, levels of education, etc. At the same time, the opportunity to tackle a topic internationally can be useful. While illustrating how the interpretations of the phenomenon vary according to the context, this overview allows us to identify some key ideas.

Le recueil est disponible en libre accès:

Warren, Jean-Philippe et Mercier, Charles (dir.). (2021). Post-Truth: A World Tour. Interviews with 9 International Experts.