The Imposter as Social Theory

"This book is for anybody bored to tears with the present, repetitive and dull, mainstream social theory." Barbara Czarniawska, University of Gothenburg "This sparkling book on imposters is the real thing. In a world of fakes, masks and ghosts, the authors show that the action of the imposter is not a performance or a trick but an experiment, a speculation offered to test the limits of appearance in social life." Arjun Appadurai, New York University "A comprehensive picture of imposters, marking a new concept and new departure. An astonishing range of examples which are important, unexpected, and clever." Stephen Turner, University of South Florida "Offering the imposter as a figure for social theorizing in a time of post-truth is both bold and acute. An urgent call for rethinking and re-ordering reality." Amade M'charek, University of Amsterdam

Steve Woolgar is Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Linkoeping University and Professor of Marketing Emeritus at Oxford University. Else Vogel is Assistant Professor at University of Amsterdam. David Moats is Research Fellow at the University of Helsinki. Claes-Fredrik Helgesson is Professor and Research Director at the Centre for Integrated Research on Culture and Society (CIRCUS) at Uppsala University.

Thinking With Imposters: The Imposter As Analytic ~ Else Vogel, David Moats, Steve Woolgar and Claes-Fredrik Helgesson The Desire to Believe and Belong: Wannabes and Their Audience in a North American Cultural Context ~ Caroline Rosenthal A Menagerie of Imposters and Truth-Tellers: Diederik Stapel and the Crisis in Psychology ~ Maarten Derksen Learning From Fakes: A Relational Approach ~ Catelijne Coopmans Imitations of Celebrity ~ Mandy Merck Natural Imposters?: A Cuckoos View of Social Relations ~ Martin Abbott and Daniel Large Conjuring Imposters: The Extraordinary Illusions of Mundanity ~ Brian Rappert States of Imposture: Scroungerphobia and the Choreography of Suspicion~ James Kaufmann The Face of 'The Other': Biometric Facial Recognition, Imposters, and the Art of Outplaying Them ~ Kristina Grunenberg Faking Spirit Possession: Creating 'Epistemic Murk' in Bahian Candomble ~ Mattijs van de Port The Guerrilla's ID Card: Flatland Against Fatland in Colombia ~ Olga Restrepo Forero and Malcolm Ashmore Good Enough Imposters: The Market for Instagram Followers in Indonesia and Beyond ~ Johan Lindquist Thinking Beyond the Imposter: Gatecrashing Un/Welcoming Borders ~ Fredy Mora-Gamez Postscript: Thinking With Imposters - What Were They Thinking? ~ Agnes, Forrest Carter, Civet Coffee Bean, Cuckoo, Iansa and Oxum, Sarah Jane, Han Van Meegeren, David Rosenhahn, Diederik Stapel and Jorge Enrique Briceno Suarez