Topic: Rumours – Which Ones Can You Trust?
Speaker: Dr. Axel Gelfert

Abstract:
Rumours don’t usually get a good press in academic circles. Spreading rumours is typically dismissed as morally blameworthy, yet at the same time rumours have been described as ways in which social communities ‘make sense’ of situations of uncertainty. Either way, for better or worse, rumours are an important element of public discourse. In this Work-In-Progress seminar, I will focus on rumours as a possible route to knowledge rather than as a social or political problem. That is, I will discuss the question of whether (and if so: when) rumours may be reasonably thought of as a source of knowledge — even if we cannot, and should not, always take them at face value.