Ignorance, Power and Harm (eBook)

Agnotology and The Criminological Imagination

Alana Barton, Howard Davis (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: PDF

2018
XV, 243 Seiten
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-319-97343-2 (ISBN)

Infos

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. 

 

 

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.

Inhalt

Acknowledgements 6
Contents 7
Notes on Contributors 9
List of Figures 13
List of Tables 14
1: Introduction 15
References 24
2: Agnotology and the Criminological Imagination 27
Introduction 27
Ignorance, Ignoring and Criminology 29
States and Acts of Ignorance 29
Manufacturing Ignorance 31
Asbestos: A Century of Corporate Killing 33
The Holocaust: Ignorance, Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide 37
Conclusion: Towards a Zemiological Agnotology 42
References 45
3: Counterinsurgency, Empire and Ignorance 50
Introduction: Counterinsurgency and Ignorance 50
Agnotology, Race and the Violence of Empire 52
Ignorance and Myths of Counterinsurgency Harm 54
Counterinsurgency, Knowledge Warfare and Militarised Ignorance 58
Counterinsurgency, Ignorance and Social Science 61
Conclusion: (Post-) Empire, Violence and Ignorance 66
References 67
4: The Ideology and Mechanics of Ignorance: Child Abuse in Ireland 1922–1973 73
Independent Ireland, Post-colonial Insecurity, Identity and the Church 77
A Broken Promise 82
The Mechanics of Ignorance 83
Industrial and Reformatory Schools 87
Conclusions 92
References 94
Archival Sources 97
5: Framing the Crisis: Private Capital to the Rescue 98
Introduction 98
Crisis, Whose Crisis? Blames, Frames and Morality Plays 100
Identifying Blameworthy Subjects 102
Silencing Blame Discourses 108
Blaming Capitalism? 111
Discussion 113
References 117
6: Managing Ignorance About M?ori Imprisonment 123
Introduction 123
Agnosis 125
Colonisation and the Development of Carceral Control 127
Constructing M?ori Deficit and Delinquency 130
Manufacturing Cultural Consciousness 132
Diverting Responsibility 136
Conclusion: M?ori Resistance to Agnosis 139
References 143
7: Border (Mis)Management, Ignorance and Denial 149
Introduction 149
Feigning Ignorance: Agnotology at the British Border 151
Cushioning the Blow: The UK’s Dependence on Proximity and Physical Distance 152
What You Don’t See Won’t Haunt You: Agnosis Through Legislatively Orchestrated Invisibility 154
Evading Accountability, Ignoring the Indefensible 158
Back in Britain: Orchestrated Agnosis to Extend Invisibility 161
Isolation as a Means to Ignore 163
Conclusion: Britain as the ‘Bystander State’? 165
References 167
8: Climate Change Denial: ‘Making Ignorance Great Again’ 173
Introduction 173
Power and Platonic Ignorance 176
Climate Change Denial and Knowledge Politics 179
Climate Change and Greening the Criminological Agenda 183
Conclusion 188
References 189
9: Spectacular Law and Order: Photography, Social Harm, and the Production of Ignorance 198
Introduction: Visual Criminology and the Politics of Ignorance 198
This-Has-Been: A Brief History of Photography Criticism 202
Spectacular Law and Order 207
Crime Photography: ‘Pensive Images’? 212
Conclusion 216
References 217
10: Penal Agnosis and Historical Denial: Problematising ‘Common Sense’ Understandings of Prison Officers and Violence in Prison 221
Constructing the Narrative 223
Prison Safety and Reform 227
Our Dedicated and Brave Staff 228
Physical Violence and Pathologised Prisoners 232
Carnage, Bloodbaths and Institutionally Structured Violence 238
Contextualising the Past: Beyond Agnosis, Silencing and Denial 241
References 243
Index 247

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 15.10.2018
• Reihe/Serie: Critical Criminological Perspectives
• Reihe/Serie: Critical Criminological Perspectives
• Zusatzinfo: XV, 243 p.
• Verlagsort: Cham
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Recht / Steuern ► Strafrecht
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• Schlagworte: agnosis • Corporate Crime • crimes of the powerful • Denial • Environmental harm • ignorance • Knowledge • legitimising social harm • manufactured consent • Penal Harm • power, discourse and harm • social harm • state crime • Zemiology
• ISBN-10: 3-319-97343-6 / 3319973436
• ISBN-13: 978-3-319-97343-2 / 9783319973432