Event Description

The IOA-research group Work, Expertize, Technology and Organization (WETO) and the journal ephemera invite to a seminar on:

“Organized ignorance”

In recent years, ignorance has received growing attention in sociology, organisation studies and cultural studies. Studies have investigated how ignorance is not just a lack of knowledge but may be a carefully manufactured and productive asset that helps individuals and organisations to command resources, deny liability and continue with operations that have harmful effects. A special issue on ‘Organized Ignorance’ of the journal ephemera contributes to the study of ignorance by exploring the work and practices involved in producing and maintaining ignorance. The articles of the special issue investigate the constitution, the dynamics, and the functions of diverse forms of ignorance with a special focus on the different kinds of work it takes to produce and sustain it. The seminar will present three articles from the special issue. Furthermore, Matthias Gross will reflect on the main insights and possible future directions of ignorance studies. The special issue will be published in April. 

Programme:

14.00-14.05: Welcome by the editors of the special issue of ephemera on ‘Organized Ignorance’

14.05-14.20: Ursula Plesner and Lise Justesen: Digitalize and deny: Pluralistic collective ignorance in an algorithmic profiling project.

14.20-14.35: Kate Kenny: Constructing unknowers, destroying whistleblowers.

14.35-14.50: Betina Riis Asplin: Unintended ignorance: The narrative of ‘the missing patient voice’

14.50-15.00 Break

15.00-15.20: Matthias Gross: Reflections on ignorance studies

15.20-15.30: Questions/reflections

15.30: reception 

About the presenters:

Ursula Plesner and Lise Justesen are associate professors at Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School. They are associated with the research group Work, Expertise, Technology, and Organization (WETO).

Kate Kenny is full Professor of Business and Society at NUI Galway. Her books include Whistleblowing: Toward a new theory (Harvard University Press, 2019)

Betina Riis Asplin is a PhD candidate at BI Norwegian Business School and C3 Centre for Connected Care, Oslo University Hospital.

Matthias Gross is full professor in environmental sociology at the University of Jena. He is a recognised science studies scholar and author of several books including Ignorance and Surprise. Science, Society, and Ecological Design (MIT Press). He is also the editor (with Linsey McGoey) of Routledge International Handbook of Ignorance Studies. 

Contact persons: Morten Knudsen, IOA, and Justine Grønbæk Pors, BHL.