MORAL PANIC, NARRATIVITY, AND AGONISTICS

The subject of the article is the analysis of the moral dimension of moral panic. The current research on moral panic is led by two approaches, processual and attributional. However, the moral dimension of moral panic is addressed in both only marginally. We intend to show that analyzing this concept in isolation from its moral dimension gives an incorrect impression that its cognitive and normative aspects may be treated as separate. We believe that the concept of moral panic when abstracted from the language of valuation, loses its theoretical potential. When analyzed across the full spectrum of its actual contexts and from the perspective of moral vocabulary, moral panic retains its theoretical relevance. Since each new form of political hegemony, violence, and other oppressive actions against the subaltern groups often resort to instigating moral panic, the concept can be usefully applied to their analysis and critique.