Soraya Boudia (Université Paris Cité)

Dimarts 27 de juny de 2023 a les 12 hores

Seminari : « Ignorance studies: Recent trends and future avenues »

Soraya Boudia (Université Paris Cité)

Abstract

Ignorance as a research topic has been en vogue in sociology, philosophy, history and anthropology for over twenty years, leading to a rich body of literature. The objective of this paper is to discuss the contributions and limitations of the ignorance studies, especially in studying health and environmental risks issues. It aims to provide an account of findings from studies of ignorance from agnotology, the new political sociology of science, and the study of strategic ignorance, and to document developments in their research questions and what they excluded or left in the shadows. Based on this analysis, the paper then proposes overcoming their limitations by further pursuing some paths opened by ignorance studies and by widening the focus to renew and expand the study of ignorance, working to clarify the complex dynamics that connect ignorance, knowledge, and uncertainty in a variety of configurations. The paper will be particularly focus on the study of the situations generated by the increasing toxification of the ecosystems and bodies, and more generally the global environmental crisis that our society is facing.

Readings

Frickel, S. and Edwards, M. (2014). “Untangling Ignorance in Environmental Risk Assessment”. In: Soraya Boudia et Nathalie Jas (Eds.), Powerless science? science and politics in a toxic world. New York: Berghahn Books, 215-233.

Hess, D., “The Sociology of Ignorance and Post-Truth Politics”, Sociological Forum, 2019.

Additional bibliography

Frickel, S., Howard, J. S. Gibbon and Kempner, J. (2010). “Undone Science: Charting Social Movement and Civil Society Challenges to Research Agenda Setting”, Science, Technology, & Human Values, 35(4), 444-473.

Hess, D. (2015). “Undone Science and Social Movements. A Review and Typology”. In: Gross, M. and McGoey, L. (Eds) (2015). Routledge international handbook of ignorance studies, London, New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 141-154.

Michaels, D. (2008). Doubt is their Product: How Industry’s Assault on Science Threatens your Health, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Oreskes, N., Conway, E. (2011). Merchants of doubt: how a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming, New York: Bloomsbury Press.

Proctor, R. et Schiebinger, L. (2008), Agnotology: the making and unmaking of ignorance. Stanford: Stanford University Press.