Message posted on 22/08/2018

Reminder: Workshop on politics of ignorance and non-knowledge - 13-14 November (abstracts due 31 August)

Dear colleagues,

Just a reminder for our upcoming workshop on the politics of non-knowledge
at the University of Vienna (Faculty of Social Sciences) taking place 13-14
November 2018.

Deadline for abstracts is 31 August!

Best regards,

Katharina Paul
on behalf of Ingrid Metzler, Erik Aarden, Helene Sorgner



Workshop: Ignorance and non-knowledge: what consequences for democratic
governance, politics and policy?

When: November 13-14, 2018
Where: University of Vienna, Austria

Confirmed keynote speakers:
Linsey McGoey (University of Essex),
Matthias Gross (University of Jena, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental
Research – UFZ),
Stefan Böschen (RWTH Aachen).

Call for papers
Ignorance and non-knowledge have become the subject of a growing body of
research in the social sciences and humanities, giving rise to a new
“sociology of ignorance.” In this line of thought, ignorance is not
merely
a consequence of the limits of our knowledge practices, but a knowledge
practice in its own right. Concepts such as McGoey’s ‘strategic
unknowns’
also challenge the assumption that power thrives only on information: In
this perspective, ignorance and non-knowledge are often actively produced,
cultivated, and exploited as a resource and a strategy.

While engagements with ignorance and non-knowledge have become more salient
over the past decade, there are different conceptual understandings of
these phenomena across disciplines. To begin with, sociologists of
ignorance have
highlighted the importance of nonknowledge practices as a resource for
industry actors. Moreover, political sociologists, such as Matthias Gross,
have recently made more explicit links between Beck’s concept of ‘risk
society’, ignorance studies, and contemporary governance of risks and
security. From a slightly different perspective, political scientists
approach uncertainty – sometimes termed ‘contingency’ – as an
inherent
condition or even mechanism of governance, rather than an instrumentally
negotiated outcome of governance.

This workshop takes these different understandings and concepts as points
of departure and seeks to spark an interdisciplinary dialogue. In doing so,
we seek to enhance our understanding of non-knowledge practices and their
consequences for democratic governance, politics and policy. We expect
issues of ignorance and non-knowledge to be particularly pertinent in areas
such as environmental policy and climate change, the regulation of
financial markets, public health, migration, research governance, and the
governance challenges arising in response to increasing digitalization and
automation, to name but a few. Specific questions of interest are:

• What relevance do different understandings of ignorance, contingency and
uncertainty have for the study of governance?
• What practices of governing unknowable or unknown objects, and futures,
can be
discerned empirically?
• What strategies of action or inaction do non-knowledge and/or uncertainty
provoke
on the part of governance actors, and where and how can we identify such
strategies?
• How do non-knowledge practices challenge or reinforce governance
practices?
• What taxonomies of knowledge practices emerge in particular case studies
and policy
areas, and what do these practices mean for our understandings of
governance in
contemporary democracies?
• How are unknowns and uncertainties currently addressed in different
policy arenas
and research practices, and with what consequences?

Participants
We invite scholars and early-career researchers to explore these questions
conceptually,through empirical case studies in different fieldwork
settings, or both. This may includeperspectives from a range of
disciplines, such as political science, anthropology, sociology,geography,
history and STS.

Format
We envisage a small workshop, with sufficient room for comments and
discussion.
There will be a public panel discussion with Matthias Gross, Stefan Böschen
and Ulrike Felt (tbc) and practitioners on November 13. Day 2 will feature
a keynote by Linsey McGoey.

Abstract submission
Abstracts should be submitted as a Word document to ignorance-workshop@
univie.ac.at, no later than 31 August 2018 and should contain approximately
250 words. In addition, pleaseinclude your title, your position and
institution, and explain in 3-5 sentences what yourspecific interest is in
the topic to focus our attention to particular issues or themes. We will
notify you if your abstract is successful by mid-September. If accepted, we
will ask you tosubmit an extended abstract (i.e. 1000-2000 words) in
advance of the workshop (mid-October), to be shared with other
participants. The sharing of these short papers will helpinform a
productive discussion.

Organisers
The workshop is organised by Katharina T. Paul, Ingrid Metzler, Erik
Aarden(University
ofVienna), and Helene Sorgner (AAU Klagenfurt). The Key Research Area
‘Knowledge
societies in turbulent times

(Faculty of Social Sciences) of the University of Vienna has generously
agreed to co-fund the workshop, and additional funding will come from the FWF
AustrianScience Fund (Grant #VA561) and STS
Austria.

Output
We anticipate a publication composed of selected papers from the workshop
in an interdisciplinary social science journal.

Attendance
Attendance is free of cost to invited participants. Lunch and refreshments
will be provided on both days, and there will be a networking and social
event on the evening of the 13th November. Regrettably, we are unable to
fund any bursaries.

[demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pdf which had a name of Folder_Ignorance_final_online_Version.pdf]
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