Agnotology

Last updated: Tuesday, 02 July 2024

The study of uncertainty and ignorance. Concept coined by Robert N. Proctor, a Stanford professor who studied the tactics used by the tobacco industry to manufacture uncertainty around the health risks of smoking.

Agnotology provides a way to understand how ignorance can be actively constructed and maintained by powerful actors and vested interests. It sheds light on the social, political and economic factors that shape what we know and don’t know.

• [⎈] Examine the motivations behind the production of ignorance (e.g. protecting commercial interests, avoiding liability) and the techniques used (e.g. suppressing data, sowing doubt, lobbying efforts).
• [⎈] Scrutinise the power relations/dynamics between those who produce ignorance and those impacted by it. How do current systems and structures enable the spread of ignorance?
• [?] How can individuals and communities build resilience against manufactured ignorance?

Backlinks

: Ground-zero empiricism : Postnormal science