Strategic unknowns: towards a sociology of ignorance

• Published in: Economy and society Vol. 41; no. 1; pp. 1 - 16
• Main Author: McGoey, Linsey
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Taylor & Francis Group 01.02.2012; Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis; Taylor & Francis
• Subjects: Ambiguity; Citizens; Consumers; Epistemology; Information; Knowledge; Political Power; Power; Resource management; Risk; Social Studies; Sociology; Sociology of ignorance; Sociology of knowledge; Sociology of knowledge and ethics; Sociology of knowledge and sociology of culture; strategic unknowns; Uncertainty; Values; Environmental Policy; Gulf War; Illness; Science; International Organization; Strategy; Bureaucracy; Neo-liberalism; Financial crisis; Political Power; ambiguity; Value; sociology of ignorance; risk; strategic unknowns; uncertainty; Knowledge; Liberalism

Developing an agenda for the social study of ignorance, this paper introduces the sociology of strategic unknowns: the investigation of the multifaceted ways that ignorance can be harnessed as a resource, enabling knowledge to be deflected, obscured, concealed or magnified in a way that increases th...