Agnotology

At Queen’s I met a retired planner who is doing his PhD on planning and environmental issues. Every time I’ve seen him over the past few years he was struggling to get the job done. He kept finding new angles to explore.

Planning in N.Ireland is a bit of a joke. Some very bad things are going on that are wrecking the environment--illegal dumping along the lovely Faughan River, sinking houses built in flood plains, illegal mining under Lough Neagh. All while planning departments turn a blind eye. My friend Dean Blackwell has dug so deeply into the problem that he has ventured far from the bureaucratic minefield of town planning practices. He is now focused on agnotology, the social production of ignorance.

Here are a few snippets from a speech he gave on the topic, which is as germane in Trump’s America as it is in Derry/Strabane Council (home to the Faughan River).

“Recent research in this field contends the production of ignorance is often deliberately utilised by state institutions and private corporations alike in attempts to retain (or destabilise) hegemony, secure (or bring down) political regimes, bolster (or undermine) established organisational practices (McGoey, 2012) and to perpetuate uncertainty and doubt amongst the publics (Proctor, 2008).”

"Proponents of agnotology argue that ignorance is a force that is '…actively nurtured and exploited…' by organisations (Davies and McGoey, 2012: 64) and recent studies suggest that this is taking place across a wide variety of disciplines and topics.”

“The social construction of ignorance has long been a strategic ploy of the powerful aimed at '…fomenting ignorance to combat knowledge' (Proctor, 2008: 11)."

"Equally important, is how adopting an agnotological approach to research can further our understanding of how planning works in practice, including shining a new light on how the production of ignorance is used to mask uncomfortable knowledge, maintain asymmetrical power relations and perpetuate the embedded injustices in the system."

"Uncomfortable knowledge is defined in organisational theory as '…knowledge that is disagreeable or intolerable to an organisation' (Flyvbjerg, 2013: 3), as it is very often in tension, contradicting, or even disproving the legitimacy of government actions and decisions.”
March 18