Social Sciences of Anti-Pseudoscience

A meta-field that studies the anti‑pseudoscience movement as a social phenomenon—its history, institutions, strategies, and effects. It examines how the category “pseudoscience” is used to police boundaries between legitimate and illegitimate knowledge, who has the authority to apply the label, and what social interests the label serves. The social sciences of anti‑pseudoscience ask: why do certain beliefs get labeled pseudoscientific while others, equally speculative, escape? How does anti‑pseudoscience activism sometimes become a form of scientism? It critically examines the social dynamics of demarcation, revealing that the fight against “bad science” is also a fight for institutional power.

Social Sciences of Anti-Pseudoscience Example: “His work in the social sciences of anti‑pseudoscience traced how the term ‘pseudoscience’ was historically used to dismiss non‑Western knowledge systems—not because they failed empirical tests, but because they threatened Western epistemic authority.”

Social Sciences of Anti-Pseudoscience by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal April 16, 2026