Micro-Ignorance and Macro-Ignorance in the Social Sciences

Bibliographic Data

ID4873063
AuthorsLinsey Mcgoey (0000-0002-4404-2574, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume87
Issue1
Pages197-217
Publication date2020-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0037-783X • E-ISSN: 1944-768X
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/sor.2020.0014
OpenAlexW3091547998
LanguageEN
Citations received13

Linsey McGoeyMicro-Ignorance and Macro-Ignorance in the Social Sciences the beast of ignorance has been clawing at its cage, demanding more attention.For over 150 years, the social sciences have treated the problem of ignorance production as secondary to the problem of knowledge production.Ignorance has been sneered at like an uninvited guest at a high table, dismissed as an inferior, low-status cousin of knowledge.Recently, a few diners at the table have taken more notice of ignorance.As if sensing an animal sleeping by their feet, they have lifted the tablecloth and gasped.Ignorance has a pulse; ignorance breathes.Ignorance is far more dynamic and more strategic than expected.No wonder people guard their own ignorance: it strikes people as exactly the sort of dangerous animal that should be contained.What happens when ignorance is freed?What happens when scholarly "ignorance of ignorance" is exposed and scholars begin approaching the study of ignorance differently than in the past?And how does ignorance relate to other forms of non-knowledge, including "unknowability"?We are on the brink of discovering some answers.In recent years, the subfield of ignorance studies has become a growing area of scholarship in the social sciences (Proctor and Schiebinger 2008;Sullivan and Tuana 2007;Gross and McGoey 2015).This subfield is underpinned by the insight that different organizations and individuals often have incentives for not wanting to embrace unsettling informa

Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Ignorance · Political science · Sociology · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics

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