Theorizing from Rupturing Events: Famine and the Social Knowledge in the Making

• In Event: 30421 - Section on Global and Transnational Sociology Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 8. Uncertain Knowledge and their Epistemic Communities

Abstract

This presentation introduces a critical reflection on the marginalization of “slow events,” like famines, in historical and comparative sociology. By drawing on Boaventura de Sousa Santos' sociology of absences, the paper highlights how famines, despite being profound events, are often ignored in sociological analysis, both in theory and practice. The focus on slow, protracted crises, such as hunger and famine, has historically been sidelined, even though scholars like Pitrim Sorokin identified hunger as the most urgent topic for studying the basic factors in human affairs already in 1922.
Through the lens of “blind spots” in sociological imagination, the presentation tackles the dual nature of famines: they are both sudden, catastrophic ruptures and long, drawn-out processes of decay and suffering. Famines are not just abrupt events; they also involve complex political violence and are often produced as invisible phenomena in the sociological discourse. By examining the sociopolitical and epistemic silences surrounding famines—particularly through the case study of the Great Ukrainian Famine of 1932-1933—this research argues that famines challenge the limits of sociological frameworks on violence, recognition, and knowledge production.
By examining the decades-long processes of the "social making of knowledge" (Swidler 1994) and the "politics of recognition" (Lamont 2023) surrounding the Great Ukrainian Famine of 1932-1933, the presentation proposes a cultural agenda that reorients attention to the sociological significance of famines, offering a path forward for bridging the gaps in how sociologists understand the large-scale suffering and politics of its recognition. The research underlines the importance of rethinking famines as both rupturing events and long-term processes that expose critical blind spots in current sociological theory.

Author

• Karolina Koziura, University of Toronto