The Politics of Not-Knowing: Theorizing Denial and Ignorance in a Reactionary Age

Session Submission Type: Invited Session (90 minute)

Description

In an era marked by intellectual repression, political backlash, and technological acceleration, the sociology of denial and ignorance offer vital tools for understanding how knowledge is ignored, resisted, distorted, or strategically obscured. This session brings together scholars examining the social production of not-knowing in a reactionary age – how institutions, ideologies, and technologies contribute to the active denial of inconvenient truths. From anti-critical race theory (CRT) legislation and the erasure of histories of inequality, to governments manufacturing uncertainty, to climate change denial and the delegitimization of science, theories of denial and ignorance help interrogate the forces shaping what is not known and why. The session aims to advance theoretical and empirical insights into how knowledge is policed, how ignorance is cultivated, how denial is produced and maintained, and how sociologists can critically engage with the contested boundaries of public understanding.

Sub Unit

• Special Session

Presider

• Marianne Cooper, Stanford University

Panelists

• Victor E. Ray, University of Iowa

• Kari Marie Norgaard, University of Oregon

• Jared Del Rosso, University of Denver

• Linsey McGoey, University of Essex

Session Organizer

• Marianne Cooper, Stanford University