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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

This chapter considers the relationship between decentered and decentralized knowledge production and the simultaneous production of ignorance. It begins by underlining the definitions of decentering and decentralization that Rodriguez Medina and Harding use and tie these terms to recent episodes that can be aptly characterized using them. It then highlights important ways in which ignorance has been conceptualized in science and technology studies and allied fields. From there, the chapter uses several significant cases to make the argument that the failure to seriously engage decentered and decentralized knowledge production can lead to prominent spheres of ignorance. It suggests that creating space for decentered and decentralized knowledge production can make more robust knowledge possible than would otherwise be the case.

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References

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No Safe Place: Toxic Waste, Leukemia, and Community Action
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Selective Ignorance in Environmental Research
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2010
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Undone Science: Social Movement Challenges to Dominant Scientific Practice
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Science, Technology, and Human Values
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Frickel
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M. B.
Vincent
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2011
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Katrina's Contamination: Regulatory Knowledge Gaps in the Making and Unmaking of Environmental Contention
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Matthias
Gross
and
Linsey
McGoey
.
London
:
Routledge
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Haraway
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Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective
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Duke University Press
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Harrison
,
Jill Lindsey
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Parsing ‘Participation’ in Action Research: Navigating the Challenges of Lay Involvement in Technically Complex Participatory Science Projects
.”
Society and Natural Resources
24
:
702
16
.
Hess
,
David
.
2015
. “
Undone Science and Social Movements: A Review and Typology
.” In
Routledge Handbook of Ignorance Studies
, edited by
Matthias
Gross
and
Linsey
McGoey
,
141
54
.
London
:
Routledge
.
Hess
,
David
.
2022
. “
Undone Science and Social Movements: A Review and Typology
.” In
Routledge Handbook of Ignorance Studies
, 2nd ed., edited by
Matthias
Gross
and
Linsey
McGoey
,
167
77
.
London
:
Routledge
.
Kleinman
,
Daniel Lee
.
2000
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Democratizations of Science and Technology
.” In
Science, Technology, and Democracy
, edited by
Daniel
Lee
Kleinman,
139
66
.
Albany, NY
:
SUNY Press
.
Kleinman
,
Daniel Lee
, and
Sainath
Suryanarayanan
.
2013
. “
Dying Bees and the Social Production of Ignorance
.”
Science, Technology, and Human Values
38
(
4
):
492
517
.
Kourany
,
Janet
.
2015
. “
Science: For Better or Worse, a Source of Ignorance as Well as Knowledge
.” In
Routledge Handbook of Ignorance Studies
, edited by
Matthias
Gross
and
Linsey
McGoey
,
155
64
.
London
:
Routledge
.
Ottinger
,
Gwen
.
2010
. “
Buckets of Resistance: Standards and the Effectiveness of Citizen Science
.”
Science, Technology, and Human Values
35
(
2
):
244
70
.
Suyanarayanan
,
Sainath
, and
Daniel Lee
Kleinman
.
2017
.
Vanishing Bees: Science, Politics and Honeybee Health
.
New Brunswick, NJ
:
Rutgers University Press
.
Suryanarayanan
,
Sainath
,
Daniel Lee
Kleinman
,
Claudio
Gratton
,
Amy
Toth
,
Christelle
Guedot
,
Russell
Groves
,
John
Piechowski
,
Brad
Moore
,
Deborah
Hagedorn
,
Dayton
Kauth
,
Heather
Swan
, and
Mary
Celley
.
2018
. “
Collaboration Matters: Honey Bee Health as a Transdisciplinary Model for Understanding Real-World Complexity
.”
Bioscience
68
(
12
):
990
95
.

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References

References

Brown
,
Phil
, and
Edwin
Mikkelson
.
1990
.
No Safe Place: Toxic Waste, Leukemia, and Community Action
.
Berkeley
:
University of California Press
.
Elliot
,
Kevin C.
2015
. “
Selective Ignorance in Environmental Research
.” In
Routledge Handbook of Ignorance Studies
, edited by
Matthias
Gross
and
Linsey
McGoey
,
165
73
.
London
:
Routledge
.
Epstein
,
Steven
.
1996
.
Impure Science: AIDS, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge
.
Berkeley
:
University of California Press
.
Epstein
,
Steven
.
2000
. “
Democracy, Expertise, and AIDS Treatment Activism
.” In
Science, Technology, and Democracy
, edited by
Daniel Lee
Kleinman
,
15
32
.
Albany, NY
:
SUNY Press
.
Frickel
,
Scott
.
2014
. “
Not Here and Everywhere: The Non-production of Scientific Knowledge
.” In
Routledge Handbook of Science, Technology, and Society
, edited by
Daniel
Lee
Kleinman and
Kelly
Moore
,
263
76
.
London
:
Routledge
.
Frickel
,
Scott
,
Sahra
Gibbon
,
Jeff
Howard
,
Joana
Kempner
,
Gwen
Ottinger
, and
David
Hess
.
2010
. “
Undone Science: Social Movement Challenges to Dominant Scientific Practice
.”
Science, Technology, and Human Values
35
(
4
):
444
73
.
Frickel
,
Scott
, and
M. B.
Vincent
.
2011
. “
Katrina's Contamination: Regulatory Knowledge Gaps in the Making and Unmaking of Environmental Contention
.” In
Dynamics of Disaster: Lessons in Risk, Response, and Recovery
, edited by
R. A.
Dowty
and
Barbara
Allen
,
11
28
.
London
:
Earthscan
.
Gross
,
Matthias
, and
Linsey
McGoey
, eds.
2015
.
Routledge Handbook of Ignorance Studies
, edited by
Matthias
Gross
and
Linsey
McGoey
.
London
:
Routledge
.
Haraway
,
Donna
.
1988
. “
Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective
.”
Feminist Studies
14
(
3
):
575
99
.
Harding
,
Sandra
.
2008
.
Sciences from Below: Feminisms, Postcolonialities, and Modernities
.
Durham, NC
:
Duke University Press
.
Harrison
,
Jill Lindsey
.
2011
. “
Parsing ‘Participation’ in Action Research: Navigating the Challenges of Lay Involvement in Technically Complex Participatory Science Projects
.”
Society and Natural Resources
24
:
702
16
.
Hess
,
David
.
2015
. “
Undone Science and Social Movements: A Review and Typology
.” In
Routledge Handbook of Ignorance Studies
, edited by
Matthias
Gross
and
Linsey
McGoey
,
141
54
.
London
:
Routledge
.
Hess
,
David
.
2022
. “
Undone Science and Social Movements: A Review and Typology
.” In
Routledge Handbook of Ignorance Studies
, 2nd ed., edited by
Matthias
Gross
and
Linsey
McGoey
,
167
77
.
London
:
Routledge
.
Kleinman
,
Daniel Lee
.
2000
. “
Democratizations of Science and Technology
.” In
Science, Technology, and Democracy
, edited by
Daniel
Lee
Kleinman,
139
66
.
Albany, NY
:
SUNY Press
.
Kleinman
,
Daniel Lee
, and
Sainath
Suryanarayanan
.
2013
. “
Dying Bees and the Social Production of Ignorance
.”
Science, Technology, and Human Values
38
(
4
):
492
517
.
Kourany
,
Janet
.
2015
. “
Science: For Better or Worse, a Source of Ignorance as Well as Knowledge
.” In
Routledge Handbook of Ignorance Studies
, edited by
Matthias
Gross
and
Linsey
McGoey
,
155
64
.
London
:
Routledge
.
Ottinger
,
Gwen
.
2010
. “
Buckets of Resistance: Standards and the Effectiveness of Citizen Science
.”
Science, Technology, and Human Values
35
(
2
):
244
70
.
Suyanarayanan
,
Sainath
, and
Daniel Lee
Kleinman
.
2017
.
Vanishing Bees: Science, Politics and Honeybee Health
.
New Brunswick, NJ
:
Rutgers University Press
.
Suryanarayanan
,
Sainath
,
Daniel Lee
Kleinman
,
Claudio
Gratton
,
Amy
Toth
,
Christelle
Guedot
,
Russell
Groves
,
John
Piechowski
,
Brad
Moore
,
Deborah
Hagedorn
,
Dayton
Kauth
,
Heather
Swan
, and
Mary
Celley
.
2018
. “
Collaboration Matters: Honey Bee Health as a Transdisciplinary Model for Understanding Real-World Complexity
.”
Bioscience
68
(
12
):
990
95
.

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