Anatomy of a cancelling case

Political-mediatic disputes about the relation between science and society

Abstract

In this paper, I discuss cancelling practices and how they have been used in power disputes involving groups with divergent conceptions of the role of science in society. The paper begins with a history of cancel practices in the confluence between affective polarization and the public sphere under the hegemony of online social networks. Based on digital sociology and political communication studies, it tries to comprehend how and why this practice has been used in the disputes over human rights in Brazil. Finally, it focuses in one empirical case in which different views about the relations between science and society have collided.