Publication Details
Category Text Publication
Reference Category Book chapters
DOI 10.4337/9781839100673.00030
Title (Primary) Technological fixes: nonknowledge transfer and the risk of ignorance
Title (Secondary) Handbook of critical environmental politics
Author Gross, M.
Publisher Pellizzoni, L.; Leonardi, E.; Asara, V.
Year 2022
Department SUSOZ
Page From 308
Page To 317
Language englisch
Topic T5 Future Landscapes
Keywords Decision-making; Ignorance studies; Nonknowledge; Risk; Technological fix; Science communication
UFZ inventory Leipzig, Bibliothek, Hauptlesesaal, 00543880, 338.23 : 614.7 Han 22-0295
Abstract Just as there is no universally accepted meaning of terms such as risk or uncertainty, so too does ignorance have its own conceptual frameworks that are based in different research traditions and are often opposed or completely unrelated to one another. In this handbook entry, I will discuss several notions of risk and ignorance to illustrate how increasingly risk assessments and actuarial predictions lack historical data and experience necessary to develop basis for decision-making and technological solutions to pressing social and environmental problems. Thus understood, risk assessments are critically assessed as a habit designed to appease concerned citizens and stakeholder parties involved. Instead of glossing over ignorance with risk assessments or rhetorics of safety, the existence of knowledge gaps should be clarified and the question raised whether a novel technology is needed, what social purposes it may serve in the future and what type of uncontrollable issues its use may bring.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=26485
Gross, M. (2022):
Technological fixes: nonknowledge transfer and the risk of ignorance
In: Pellizzoni, L., Leonardi, E., Asara, V. (eds.)
Handbook of critical environmental politics
Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, p. 308 - 317 10.4337/9781839100673.00030