Assembling credibility: Knowledge, method and critique in times of ‘post-truth’

TY - JOUR

T1 - Assembling credibility: Knowledge, method and critique in times of ‘post-truth’

AU - Aradau, Claudia

AU - Huysmans, Jef

PY - 2019/2/1

Y1 - 2019/2/1

N2 - Critical approaches in security studies have been increasingly turning to methods and standards internal to knowledge practice to validate their knowledge claims. This quest for scientific standards now also operates against the background of debates on ‘post-truth’, which raise pressing and perplexing questions for critical lines of thought. We propose a different approach by conceptualizing validity as practices of assembling credibility in which the transversal formation and circulation of credits and credentials combine with disputes over credence and credulity. This conceptualization of the validity of (critical) security knowledge shifts the focus from epistemic and methodological standards to transepistemic practices and relations. It allows us to mediate validity critically as a sociopolitical rather than strictly scientific accomplishment. Developing such an understanding of validity makes it possible for critical security studies and international relations to displace epistemic disputes about ‘post-truth’ with transversal practices of knowledge creation, circulation and accreditation.

AB - Critical approaches in security studies have been increasingly turning to methods and standards internal to knowledge practice to validate their knowledge claims. This quest for scientific standards now also operates against the background of debates on ‘post-truth’, which raise pressing and perplexing questions for critical lines of thought. We propose a different approach by conceptualizing validity as practices of assembling credibility in which the transversal formation and circulation of credits and credentials combine with disputes over credence and credulity. This conceptualization of the validity of (critical) security knowledge shifts the focus from epistemic and methodological standards to transepistemic practices and relations. It allows us to mediate validity critically as a sociopolitical rather than strictly scientific accomplishment. Developing such an understanding of validity makes it possible for critical security studies and international relations to displace epistemic disputes about ‘post-truth’ with transversal practices of knowledge creation, circulation and accreditation.

KW - Critical security studies

KW - methodology

KW - post-truth

KW - science and technology studies

KW - validity

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85058981474&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0967010618788996

DO - 10.1177/0967010618788996

M3 - Article

SN - 0967-0106

VL - 50

SP - 40

EP - 58

JO - Security Dialogue

JF - Security Dialogue

IS - 1

ER -