Societal Deception
Description
This book provides a comprehensive overview of 'societal deception' - how and why people are deceived and led to believe fake news. Coherently blending critical political economy and sociology, the author provocatively examines how corporations, political parties, the media, think tanks and assorted 'influencers' seek to manipulate public opinion to achieve their goals. This book spans an array of contemporary topics and issues not normally tackled by a single writer - the media, genetic engineering, fast food, environmental pollution, climate change, economic inequality, political manipulations, sports, and religion. While critical in subject matter, and replete with easily accessible and reliable sources, this book is highly readable and entertaining for the general as well as academic audience interested in current global issues.
Reviews / Votes
"This wide-ranging, insightful and witty book takes on truth, a thorny concept in which many have either lost confidence or now claim as their personal property. In eight spikily engaging chapters, distinguished Australian sociologist Geoffrey Lawrence trenchantly challenges today's dominant social myths. Though not underestimating the mountainous task of building equitable societies while saving their planetary home, the author still optimistically contends that egalitarian social movements can combat capitalist nihilism." (David Rowe ASSA, FAHA, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Research, Western Sydney University, recipient of the "Australian Sociological Association Distinguished Service to Sociology" Award, and co-editor of "Making Culture: Commercialisation, Transnationalism, and the State of 'Nationing' in Contemporary Australia" (2018))
"Geoffrey Lawrence offers a refreshingly critical analysis of how truth is challenged, and deception institutionalized in society. Packed with timely examples the book is of great interest to any socially engaged reader." (Hilde Bjørkhaug, Professor of Sociology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, and co-editor of "Finance or Food? The Role of Cultures", "Values and Ethics in Land Use Negotiations" (2020))
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Person
Geoffrey Lawrence is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Queensland, Australia, and Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. A recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the Australasian Agri-food Research Network (AFRN), he has an extensive publication record on a range of topics including rural social change, agri-food industries, community resilience, food security, sport and leisure, neoliberal globalization, and financialization.
Content
Who Can You Believe? Of Media, Misinformation and Trumpery .- It's the Economy, Stupid! Neoliberal Nonsense and the Myths of the Free Market .- From Seedling to Supermarket: Farming, Fast Food and the Fabrication of Trust .- Saving the Planet with Pesticides and Plastic: Corporate Profiteering and Planetary Destruction .- The Power to Lie: Propaganda and Post-truth Politics .- Praying for Salvation: Forgeries and Fallacies of Religion .- The Ultimate Diversion: Sport as False Consciousness? .- The Future: Confronting the Culprits .