Science & hoax

This article describes the debate that has developed in sociological scholarship over the «Grievance Studies Affair». Three authors provoked a number of Cultural Studies journals to accept for publication articles that were deliberately weak in methodological and empirical terms. The authors wanted to prove that contemporary postmodern research is often too politicised and deviates from the canons of scientific knowledge. The hoax succeeded and once again aggravated the question of what is social knowledge: a rigorous methodological construct based on verified and confirmed facts or is it an objectification of the opinions of resource groups? Familiarity with the materials of the polemics allows us to recall the danger of the intrusion of ideological beliefs, values and interests into social science. This leads to distortion, bias and politicisation of knowledge and undermines its authority. The totality of manipulation techniques of public consciousness with the help of scientific knowledge is defined in the article as «deepfake method».