Dynamics of wilful blindness: an introduction

Judith Bovensiepen and Mathijs Pelkmans

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: What are the politics of ignorance in an age of misinformation? How can the concept of ‘wilful blindness’ help us to understand the logics involved? We start the introduction to this special issue by arguing that the intrinsic instability of wilful blindness draws valuable attention to the graded nature of intentionality and perception, and the tensions between them. These features are an essential part of the workings of ignorance, as we illustrate with reference to the shifting intentions of drug couriers, the fleeting moments in which the humanity of victims is recognised in the midst of violent acts, and the affects that channel economic behaviour, such as in the subprime mortgage crisis. When approaching perception and intentionality as complexly entangled in institutionalised fields of power, ‘wilful blindness’ emerges as a powerful and critical diagnostic of the epistemic instabilities of our time.

Keywords: affect; agnotology; denial; intentionality; political economy of non-knowledge; recognition; strategic ignorance; transparency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16 pages
Date: 2020-12
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in Critique of Anthropology, December, 2020, 40(4), pp. 387-402. ISSN: 0308-275X

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/104404/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:104404

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().