Download or read book The Unknowers written by Linsey McGoey and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-09-15 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deliberate ignorance has been known as the 'Ostrich Instruction' in law courts since the 1860s. It illustrates a recurring pattern in history in which figureheads for major companies, political leaders and industry bigwigs plead ignorance to avoid culpability. So why do so many figures at the top still get away with it when disasters on their watch damage so many people's lives? Does the idea that knowledge is power still apply in today's post-truth world? A bold, wide-ranging exploration of the relationship between ignorance and power in the modern age, from debates over colonial power and economic rent-seeking in the 18th and 19th centuries to the legal defences of today, The Unknowers shows that strategic ignorance has not only long been an inherent part of modern power and big business, but also that true power lies in the ability to convince others of where the boundary between ignorance and knowledge lies.

Download or read book The Unknowers written by Linsey McGoey and published by Zed Books Ltd.. This book was released on 2019-09-15 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deliberate ignorance has been known as the ‘Ostrich Instruction’ in law courts since the 1860s. It illustrates a recurring pattern in history in which figureheads for major companies, political leaders and industry bigwigs plead ignorance to avoid culpability. So why do so many figures at the top still get away with it when disasters on their watch damage so many people’s lives? Does the idea that knowledge is power still apply in today’s post-truth world? A bold, wide-ranging exploration of the relationship between ignorance and power in the modern age, from debates over colonial power and economic rent-seeking in the 18th and 19th centuries to the legal defences of today, The Unknowers shows that strategic ignorance has not only long been an inherent part of modern power and big business, but also that true power lies in the ability to convince others of where the boundary between ignorance and knowledge lies.

Download or read book Routledge International Handbook of Ignorance Studies written by Matthias Gross and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-05-15 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once treated as the absence of knowledge, ignorance today has become a highly influential topic in its own right, commanding growing attention across the natural and social sciences where a wide range of scholars have begun to explore the social life and political issues involved in the distribution and strategic use of not knowing. The field is growing fast and this handbook reflects this interdisciplinary field of study by drawing contributions from economics, sociology, history, philosophy, cultural studies, anthropology, feminist studies, and related fields in order to serve as a seminal guide to the political, legal and social uses of ignorance in social and political life. Chapter 33 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license available here: https://tandfbis.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/rt-files/docs/Open+Access+Chapters/9780415718967_oachapter33.pdf

Download or read book A Passion for Ignorance written by Renata Salecl and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-11-29 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An original and provocative exploration of our capacity to ignore what is inconvenient or traumatic Ignorance, whether passive or active, conscious or unconscious, has always been a part of the human condition, Renata Salecl argues. What has changed in our post-truth, postindustrial world is that we often feel overwhelmed by the constant flood of information and misinformation. It sometimes seems impossible to differentiate between truth and falsehood and, as a result, there has been a backlash against the idea of expertise, and a rise in the number of people actively choosing not to know. The dangers of this are obvious, but Salecl challenges our assumptions, arguing that there may also be a positive side to ignorance, and that by addressing the role of ignorance in society, we may also be able to reclaim the role of knowledge. Drawing on philosophy, social and psychoanalytic theory, popular culture, and her own experience, Salecl explores how the passion for ignorance plays out in many different aspects of life today, from love, illness, trauma, and the fear of failure to genetics, forensic science, big data, and the incel movement—and she concludes that ignorance is a complex phenomenon that can, on occasion, benefit individuals and society as a whole. The result is a fascinating investigation of how the knowledge economy became an ignorance economy, what it means for us, and what it tells us about the world today.

Download or read book Unsaying God written by Aydogan Kars and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on the first seven centuries of the Islamic intellectual history, Unsaying God examines the ways in which Muslim, and some Jewish, scholars negated what they said about God in order to indicate the limits of human thought on the absolute. Ardogan Kars argue that contemporary studies on apophasis and negative theology in Islam are strongly motivated by the challenges and demands of modernity, and tend to preserve European universalism in the language of pluralism.

Download or read book Axis Mundi Sum written by D. A. Smith and published by The Invisible College Press, LLC. This book was released on 2003-06 with total page 490 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Not Born Yesterday written by Hugo Mercier and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-03-22 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why people are not as gullible as we think Not Born Yesterday explains how we decide who we can trust and what we should believe—and argues that we're pretty good at making these decisions. In this lively and provocative book, Hugo Mercier demonstrates how virtually all attempts at mass persuasion—whether by religious leaders, politicians, or advertisers—fail miserably. Drawing on recent findings from political science and other fields ranging from history to anthropology, Mercier shows that the narrative of widespread gullibility, in which a credulous public is easily misled by demagogues and charlatans, is simply wrong. Why is mass persuasion so difficult? Mercier uses the latest findings from experimental psychology to show how each of us is endowed with sophisticated cognitive mechanisms of open vigilance. Computing a variety of cues, these mechanisms enable us to be on guard against harmful beliefs, while being open enough to change our minds when presented with the right evidence. Even failures—when we accept false confessions, spread wild rumors, or fall for quack medicine—are better explained as bugs in otherwise well-functioning cognitive mechanisms than as symptoms of general gullibility. Not Born Yesterday shows how we filter the flow of information that surrounds us, argues that we do it well, and explains how we can do it better still.

Download or read book CEO Society written by Peter Bloom and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-04-15 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) have become the cultural icons of the 21st century. Figures like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are held up as role models who epitomise the modern pursuit of innovation, wealth and success. We now live, Bloom and Rhodes argue, in a 'CEO society' – a society where corporate leadership has become the model for transforming not just business, but all spheres of life, where everyone from politicians to jobseekers to even those seeking love are expected to imitate the qualities of the lionized corporate executive. But why, in the wake of the failings exposed by the 2008 financial crisis, does the corporate ideal continue to exert such a grip on popular attitudes? In this insightful new book, Bloom and Rhodes examine the rise of the CEO society, and how it has started to transform governments, culture and the economy. This influence, they argue, holds troubling implications for the future of democracy - as evidenced by the disturbing political rise of Donald Trump in the US - and for our society as a whole.

Download or read book Live Die Buy Eat written by Kristian Bjørkdahl and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-11-22 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Live, Die, Buy, Eat. These words represent a chain of events which today is disconnected. In the past few years, controversies around meat have arisen around industrialization and globalization of meat production, often pivoting around health, environmental issues, and animal welfare. Although meat increasingly figures as a problem, most consumers’ knowledge of animal husbandry and meat production is more absent than ever. Tracing a historical process of alienation along three distinct axes, the authors show how the animal origin of meat is covered up, rationalized, forgotten, excused, neglected, and denied. How is meat produced today, and where? How do we consume meat, and how have our consumption habits changed? Why have these changes occurred, and what are the social and cultural consequences of these changes? Using Norway as a case study, this book examines the dramatic changes in meat production and consumption over the last 150 years. With a wide range of historical sources, together with interviews and observation at farms, slaughterhouses, and production units, as well as analyses of contemporary texts and digital sources, Live, Die, Buy, Eat explores the transformation of animal husbandry, meat production and consumption, together with its cultural consequences. It will appeal to scholars of anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, geography, and history with an interest in food, agriculture, environment, and culture.

Download or read book The Feather Birdhouse written by Robin Carpenter and published by Helen's Place LLC. This book was released on 2021-07-14 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Feather Birdhouse or Birds On The Move is a coming-of-age adventure story about a bird named Squawky (a great-grackle) who keeps getting into trouble. His friends, the four Wend sisters (starlings), the Doves, and Pidge (an inexperienced rock pigeon), can’t help. Luckily, Uncle Motley, the old cowbird is there to give advice to all. This is a great book for young readers interested in imaginative stories about birds, nature, and caring about the environment. The book contains 22 color illustrations and information to learn more about birds. It challenges the reader to create a nature journal, story, or bird record of their own to answer the question - What’s in Your Birdhouse World? Based on real birds, people, places, and events, the Feather Birdhouse is an outdoor birdhouse world in the city. Squawky, an orphan raised by doves, sets out on a troubled quest to find a girlfriend and figure out where he fits into the bird world. Meanwhile, environmental and human factors, unknown to the birds, threaten everything. Will the Feather Birdhouse be destroyed? Who will save the day? Squawky navigates through difficult situations including being bullied by the Grackle Gang and being made fun of by Brassy and the Beauty Birds. But in the end, he gets through all his troubles and reminds us that it’s tough to be a bird!

Download or read book Post Truth written by Steve Fuller and published by Anthem Press. This book was released on 2018-05-25 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘Post-truth’ was Oxford Dictionaries 2016 word of the year. While the term was coined by its disparagers in the light of the Brexit and US presidential campaigns, the roots of post-truth lie deep in the history of Western social and political theory. Post-Truth reaches back to Plato, ranging across theology and philosophy, to focus on the Machiavellian tradition in classical sociology, as exemplified by Vilfredo Pareto, who offered the original modern account of post-truth in terms of the ‘circulation of elites’. The defining feature of ‘post-truth’ is a strong distinction between appearance and reality which is never quite resolved and so the strongest appearance ends up passing for reality. The only question is whether more is gained by rapid changes in appearance or by stabilizing one such appearance. Post-Truth plays out what this means for both politics and science.

Download or read book Communities Of Innovation How Organizations Harness Collective Creativity And Build Resilience written by Patrick Cohendet and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2021-04-12 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'This is a landmark study that tackles an important black box in innovation studies — i.e. communities of innovation. While conventional work focuses on formal organizations, a select group of academic leaders highlights the various communities that cut across firms and form the vital 'underground' for processes of creativity and ideation. While targeted toward business and management, this volume is a must-read for all social scientists interested in the dynamics underlying the current knowledge economy.'Journal of Economic GeographyThis book describes the important role played by communities in innovation processes and how organizations can benefit from it. A community brings together individuals who share a common passion for a given area of knowledge and can contribute to innovation at different levels: capitalization of good practices, problem solving, sharing of expertise, or development of new and creative ideas. The literature has progressively identified many variants of communities such as communities of practice, epistemic communities, communities of interest, virtual communities, etc. These forms of communities differ regarding the type of the specialized activities of knowledge on which they focus. As practitioners and academics increasingly emphasized the needs of collaborative approaches in innovation, they progressively challenged the traditional idea that innovation is mainly generated by hierarchical corporate departments and highlighted the active role that communities play in innovation processes. The aim of this book is to shed light, using multiple examples, on the proactive and fundamental role of communities in the new innovation practices of organizations.

Download or read book The Amateur written by Andy Merrifield and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2018-05-29 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A radical manifesto about doing what you love Andy Merrifield offers a passionate tribute to the revolutionary spirit of the amateur—a figure who thinks outside the box, takes risks, dreams the impossible dream, seeks independence, and carves out a new world. Merrifield celebrates such square pegs as Charles Baudelaire, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Edward Said, Guy Debord, Hannah Arendt, and Jane Jacobs, each of whom shows us a path of unconventional wisdom and freedom. The Amateur advocates urgently for the liberated life, one that creates the space to question authority.

Download or read book Against Democracy written by Jason Brennan and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-09-26 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bracingly provocative challenge to one of our most cherished ideas and institutions Most people believe democracy is a uniquely just form of government. They believe people have the right to an equal share of political power. And they believe that political participation is good for us—it empowers us, helps us get what we want, and tends to make us smarter, more virtuous, and more caring for one another. These are some of our most cherished ideas about democracy. But Jason Brennan says they are all wrong. In this trenchant book, Brennan argues that democracy should be judged by its results—and the results are not good enough. Just as defendants have a right to a fair trial, citizens have a right to competent government. But democracy is the rule of the ignorant and the irrational, and it all too often falls short. Furthermore, no one has a fundamental right to any share of political power, and exercising political power does most of us little good. On the contrary, a wide range of social science research shows that political participation and democratic deliberation actually tend to make people worse—more irrational, biased, and mean. Given this grim picture, Brennan argues that a new system of government—epistocracy, the rule of the knowledgeable—may be better than democracy, and that it's time to experiment and find out. A challenging critique of democracy and the first sustained defense of the rule of the knowledgeable, Against Democracy is essential reading for scholars and students of politics across the disciplines. Featuring a new preface that situates the book within the current political climate and discusses other alternatives beyond epistocracy, Against Democracy is a challenging critique of democracy and the first sustained defense of the rule of the knowledgeable.

Download or read book An Introduction to the Sociology of Ignorance written by Linsey McGoey and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-01-08 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ignorance is typically thought of as the absence or opposite of knowledge. In global societies that equate knowledge with power, ignorance is seen as a liability that can and should be overcome through increased education and access to information. In recent years, scholars from the social sciences, natural sciences and humanities have challenged this assumption, and have explored the ways in which ignorance can serve as a vital resource – perhaps the most vital resource – in social and political life. In this seminal volume, leading theorists of ignorance from anthropology, sociology and legal studies explore the productive role of ignorance in maintaining and destabilizing political regimes, entrenching corporate power, and shaping policy developments in climate science, global health, and global economic governance. From debates over death tolls during the war in Iraq, to the root causes of the global financial crisis, to poverty reduction strategies at the World Bank, contributors shed light on the unexpected ways that ignorance is actively harnessed by both the powerful and the marginalized in order to achieve different objectives. This eye-opening volume suggests that to understand power today, we must enrich our understanding of ignorance. This book was originally published as a special issue of Economy and Society.

Download or read book Woke Capitalism written by Carl Rhodes and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2022-11-15 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book delves into the corporate takeover of public morality, or ‘woke capitalism’. Discussing the political causes that it has adopted, and the social causes that it has not, it argues that this extension of capitalism has negative implications for democracy’s future.

Download or read book Dreamland Japan written by Frederik L. Schodt and published by Stone Bridge Press, Inc.. This book was released on 2013-06-15 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This landmark book, first published at the height of the manga boom, is offered in a hardcover collector's edition with a new foreword and afterword. Frederik L. Schodt looks at the classic publications and artists who created modern manga, including the magazines Big Comics and Morning, and artists like Suehiro Maruo and Shigeru Mizuki; an entire chapter is devoted to Osamu Tezuka. The new afterword shows how manga have evolved in the past decade to transform global visual culture. Frederik L. Schodt, based in San Francisco, is fluent in Japanese and author of many works about Japan.