Producing ME/CFS in Dutch Newspapers. A Social-Discursive Analysis About Non/credibility
de Boer,Marjolein Lotte Slatman,Jenny
de Boer,Marjolein Lotte
Slatman,Jenny
Abstract
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is a highly contested illness. This paper analyzes the discursive production of knowledge about, and recognition of ME/CFS. By mobilizing insights from social epistemology and epistemic injustice studies, this paper reveals how actors, through their social-discursive practices, attribute to establishing, sustaining, and disregarding their own and others' epistemological position. In focusing on the case of the Dutch newspaper reporting about ME/CFS, this paper shows that the debate about this condition predominantly revolves around the ways in which people who make truth claims are represented. In being portrayed as gendered, affectatious, formerly very able, fanatical, or benevolent, people with ME/CFS are constructed as non-/credible. In the debate about what causes ME/CFS, by contrast, the production of non-/credible knowledge focuses more on the content of epistemic positions. Actors in this debate argue that they know the (clear) causes for the illness, something which functions as a discursive strategy to establish and enhance their credibility. This paper contends, however, that since this discursive demarcation of causes is consistently infused with uncertainty - with multi-interpretability, with diffuse explanations, and absence of current knowledge - the credibility of these actors' epistemic position is undercut rather than established.
Description
Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Date
2023-12
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Keywords
Me/cfs, Credibility deficits, Discourse analysis, Epistemic injustice
Citation
de Boer, M L & Slatman, J 2023, 'Producing ME/CFS in Dutch Newspapers. A Social-Discursive Analysis About Non/credibility', Social Epistemology, vol. 37, no. 5, pp. 592-609. https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2023.2171748