Overview
- Explores the significance of agnosis within the field of criminology and the social sciences
- Offers a theoretical framework within which ignorance and its harmful consequences are examined
- Includes an expansive set of case studies that explore contemporary criminological, sociological and political concerns
Part of the book series: Critical Criminological Perspectives (CCRP)
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Table of contents (10 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book discusses the concept of 'agnosis' and its significance for criminology through a series of case studies, contributing to the expansion of the criminological imagination. Agnotology – the study of the cultural production of ignorance, has primarily been proposed as an analytical tool in the fields of science and medicine. However, this book argues that it has significant resonance for criminology and the social sciences given that ignorance is a crucial means through which public acceptance of serious and sometimes mass harms is achieved. The editors argue that this phenomenon requires a systematic inquiry into ignorance as an area of criminological study in its own right.
Through case studies on topics such as migrant detention, historical institutionalised child abuse, imprisonment, environmental harm and financial collapse, this book examines the construction of ignorance, and the power dynamics that facilitate and shape that construction in a range of different contexts. Furthermore, this book addresses the relationship between ignorance and the achievement of ‘manufactured consent’ to political and cultural hegemony, acquiescence in its harmful consequences and the deflection of responsibility for them.
Editors and Affiliations
About the editors
Alana Barton is Reader in Criminology at Edge Hill University. She has previously worked at the University of Central Lancashire and Liverpool John Moores University. Alana is the author of Fragile Moralities and Dangerous Sexualities (Ashgate, 2005) and co-editor of Expanding the Criminological Imagination (Willan, 2007).
Howard Davis is Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Edge Hill University. He had a previous career as a social worker, working in the fields of child protection, trauma and bereavement. He has published in a range of journals including the British Journal of Social Work, Disasters, and the British Journal of Criminology.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Ignorance, Power and Harm
Book Subtitle: Agnotology and The Criminological Imagination
Editors: Alana Barton, Howard Davis
Series Title: Critical Criminological Perspectives
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97343-2
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Law and Criminology, Law and Criminology (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-97342-5Published: 19 November 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-40369-0Published: 21 February 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-97343-2Published: 15 October 2018
Series ISSN: 2731-0604
Series E-ISSN: 2731-0612
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 243
Topics: Critical Criminology, Crime and Society, Prison and Punishment, State Crimes, Corporate Crime, Political Sociology