Where is Folklore Now? - The Current State of the Academic Field Dealing with Haunting and Algorithms in the Age of AI

── Folkloristic Reactions as Haunting, Algorithms, and Common Sense

The center that silenced peripheral inquiries shall not end in oblivion. Suppressed inquiries remain as a "haunting," returning to the system as a persistent counter-action.

This statement is not a metaphor. Rather, it constitutes a "societal dynamic" that the humanities have long observed. When an inquiry is suppressed, silence is not the finality. Silence persists, transforming into narratives, objects, places, rituals, rumors, and fears, eventually returning to the central order as a reactionary feedback.

In the AI era, this dynamic accelerates. Algorithms and institutions automate "correctness" and black-box explanations, effectively sealing the entry points of inquiry. However, these sealed inquiries do not vanish. Instead, within digital environments, they proliferate as rumors, folk theories, urban legends, and co-generated memes—reorganized as "knowledge for survival" amidst the shifting landscapes of labor, politics, and social norms.

This article synthesizes the trajectories of folklore studies between 2024 and 2025 to delineate the discipline's current standing. By aligning concepts such as Agency of the Dead, Unwriting, Algorithmic Folklore, Critical Folkloristics, and the contemporary re-evaluation of Kunio Yanagita in Japan, we can academically demonstrate that what we are confronting is a "reaction that defies oblivion."

1. Folklore Beyond the “Collection of Antiquities”

Definition: Unwriting is a methodological shift toward deconstructing the "writing" mandated by dominant scripts and reinstating peripheral narratives as the primary subject (SIEF 2025: Unwriting theme).

While folklore was once synonymous with the collection of folktales and rituals, a profound paradigm shift has occurred by the mid-2020s. The International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF) has designated "Unwriting" as the theme for its 2025 congress, advocating for the dismantling of predetermined scripts established by hegemony to recover marginalized voices (SIEF 2025).

Unwriting is not merely a pursuit of "decolonization" or "alternative storytelling"; it is a practice of deconstructing the power of records to restore social justice. It represents a commitment to "re-listening" to the invisible within a surveillance society dominated by AI and algorithms. Folklore has thus transformed into a discipline that investigates how suppressed inquiries and peripheral voices resurface in contemporary society, rather than merely archiving relics of the past.

Kunio Yanagida

Source: National Diet Library "Portraits of Modern Japanese" (https://www.ndl.go.jp/portrait/)

2. International Trend A: Reconceptualizing the Agency of the Dead (Haunting)

Definition: Agency of the Dead is a framework that treats the deceased not as mere symbols, but as agents capable of intervening in contemporary chains of action through rituals, dreams, narratives, materiality, and media practices (Mencej 2025: Introduction, DOI 10.7592/FEJF2025.96.introduction).

Volume 96 of the Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore (2025) featured a special issue titled "Agency of the Dead," positioning the deceased as active subjects influencing modern society rather than simple "superstitions."

This research stems from the ERC project DEAGENCY (2023–2028), which adopts an interdisciplinary approach to clarify how the dead intervene in the lives, practices, media, and digital spheres of the living.

• Case Studies: Research in Finland examines how dialogues with the dead impact daily life, while in Italy, rituals for souls in Purgatory have been shown to facilitate the regeneration of traditional customs (EJF 96, 2025).

• Conclusion: The dead exert moral authority and spatial presence through dreams, rituals, and social movements, significantly impacting nationalism and religious currents.

Within this scholarly context, such phenomena are being redefined through the lens of "haunting," where the presence of ghosts or remains is analyzed as a "reaction" that forces social issues—such as justice, memory, and land rights—to the surface.

3. International Trend B: Folklore in the Algorithmic Era — Algorithmic Folklore

Definition: Algorithmic Folklore refers to the ensemble of vernacular narratives, theories, and practices through which individuals explain and navigate algorithmic environments (ALGOFOLK 2024: project description).

The ALGOFOLK project (2024–2028) at the University of Bergen, Norway, explores the reciprocal relationship between automated systems and human practice—specifically how recommendation engines shape "vernacular creativity" and how human agency, in turn, influences these models.

"Algorithmic folklore" constitutes the repertoire of genres and practices arising from the encounter between humans and automated systems (ALGOFOLK 2024).

• Specific Manifestations: Urban legends regarding GPT-4, folk theories of TikTok recommendation algorithms, and the circulation of co-generated memes via generative AI.

• Shadow Banning: According to Savolainen (2022), user debates regarding "shadow banning"—a phenomenon frequently denied by platforms—can be decoded as "algorithmic folklore" that exists independently of official narratives. This represents the site where individuals perform "interpretive labor" to survive under black-boxed governance.

4. International Trend C: Critical Folkloristics and the Anatomy of Denial

Definition: Critical Folkloristics is a critical methodology for deconstructing the processes by which specific narratives are naturalized as "common sense"—often through denial, justification, or exemption—within power relations (Reinhammar 2025: DOI 10.23991/ef.156592).

Digital public opinion, including climate change denial and conspiracy theories, has become a vital subject of folkloristic inquiry. Reinhammar (2025) analyzed how denial is transformed into "Common Sense" on social media platforms using critical folkloristic techniques.

This approach highlights that folklore is embedded within political power structures and can be utilized to render the violence of institutions and media invisible. For instance, the mythos of Galileo is often co-opted as a symbol for climate skeptics, serving as a narrative that reinforces existing inequalities (Reinhammar 2025). When AI or institutions suppress inquiries and overwrite them with a fabricated "common sense," folkloristic analysis acts as a safeguard against the "evaporation of responsibility," exposing the underlying politics of the narrative.

5. The Current Status in Japan: 150 Years of Kunio Yanagita and the Vernacular Turn

Definition: The vernacular is a concept used to visualize and analyze everyday practices and knowledge overlooked by formal institutions, thereby recalibrating the analytical lenses of cultural studies (KAKENHI 23K22039: project outline).

In Japan, the 150th anniversary of Kunio Yanagita's birth in 2025 has catalyzed a movement to apply his theories to modern challenges through the lenses of publicness and media theory. A pivotal concept in this shift is the "vernacular."

This theoretical framework has been articulated in Japan as the tension between "Official Order" and "Vernacular Order" (The Folklore Society of Japan 2024). A Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) project, "Construction of a perspective for cultural studies using the concept of 'vernacular'—For a folkloristic turn" (FY2024–2025, Project Number: 23K22039, PI: Yutaka Suga), is currently interrogating these dynamics.

Such projects relativize hegemonic institutions by decoding the "arts of existence" and tactical maneuvers found in the lives of nameless individuals. This represents an effort to treat peripheral practices not as passive data, but as dynamic reactions that proactively update central concepts.

▼Click here for the paper https://zenodo.org/records/16945614

Conclusion: Folklore as “Foundational Infrastructure” in the AI Era

As demonstrated, contemporary folklore studies have redefined "haunting"—the persistence of suppressed inquiries—not as a vestige of the past, but as a fundamental operation of modern society.

• Agency of the Dead Research (EJF 2025; Mencej 2025) illustrates how the deceased enter active chains of agency through media.

• Unwriting (SIEF 2025) reveals central "writing" as a tool of suppression and restores the "survival of inquiry" by deconstructing those scripts.

• Algorithmic Folklore (ALGOFOLK 2024; Savolainen 2022) maps the sites of "interpretive labor" necessary for survival under opaque governance.

• Critical Folkloristics (Reinhammar 2025) illuminates the mechanisms of accountability evaporation as denial is naturalized into "common sense."

• Vernacular Research in Japan (KAKENHI 23K22039, etc.) captures the creative practices that maintain a necessary distance from dominant institutions.

In essence, the center that silenced peripheral inquiries shall not end in oblivion. Suppressed inquiries return to the system as a haunting. The AI era is defined by the acceleration of this reaction—occurring faster, more pervasively, and through less visible channels.

The more AI and institutional systems become black-boxed, the more individuals must rely on folklore to survive. Consequently, folklore is no longer a discipline for preserving the past; it is the "Foundational Infrastructure" on the frontlines of addressing the erosion of governance, responsibility, and meaning in the AI era.

The next imperative is to move beyond warnings and establish this as an operational boundary. The formalization of the conditions under which silence, haunting, and "leaps" are triggered—and the identification of the minimum commitment required to prevent the silencing of inquiry—will be the subject of a forthcoming paper (Preprint: "The Philosophy of the Curse Operator and the Leap").

References

International Context

• Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore. (2025). Special Issue: Agency of the Dead (Vol. 96). Tartu: ELM Scholarly Press. [https://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol96/]

• Mencej, M. (2025). "Introduction." Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore, 96. https://doi.org/10.7592/FEJF2025.96.introduction [https://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol96/introduction.pdf]

• DEAGENCY (ERC Project). (2023–2028). The Roles of the Dead and the Agency of the Living. [https://erc-deagency.eu/]

• International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF). (2025). SIEF2025 17th Congress theme: Unwriting. [https://www.siefhome.org/congresses/sief2025/unwriting-theme/]

• Reinhammar, C. (2025). "Unpacking “Common Sense”: A Critical Folkloristic Approach to Narratives of Climate Change Denial." Ethnologia Fennica, 52(1). https://doi.org/10.23991/ef.156592 [https://journal.fi/ethnolfenn/article/view/156592]

• Savolainen, L. (2022). "Shadow banning controversy: Perceived governance and algorithmic folklore." Media, Culture & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437221077174 [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01634437221077174]

• University of Bergen. (2024). Algorithmic Folklore (ALGOFOLK): Everyday Creativity and Agency in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. [https://www4.uib.no/en/research/research-projects/algorithmic-folklore]

Japanese Context

• The Folklore Society of Japan (Gendai Minzoku Gakkai). (2024). 70th Workshop: Official Order / Vernacular Order. [http://gendaiminzoku.com/archives/1276]

• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). Construction of a perspective for cultural studies using the concept of 'vernacular'—For a folkloristic turn. (Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas (A), Project Number: 23K22039, PI: Yutaka Suga, Term: FY2024–2025). [https://kaken.nii.ac.jp/ja/grant/KAKENHI-PROJECT-23K22039/]

• Waseda University. (2024). 150th Anniversary of Kunio Yanagita's Birth: Thinking about the Modern Significance of Yanagita Studies. [https://www.waseda.jp/inst/wls/news/2024/07/04/6305/]