Knowing and Not Knowing. Stehr, N. In Meusburger, P., Werlen, B., & Suarsana, L., editors, Knowledge and Action, of Knowledge and Space, pages 113–125. Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2017.
Knowing and Not Knowing [link]Paper  doi  abstract   bibtex   
The author offers a sociological critique of the prevalent argument that the increasing polarization of knowledge and non-knowledge (or ignorance) has become a distinguishing feature of modernity. He acknowledges that significant asymmetries of knowledge result from differences between the positions that individuals and groups occupy in societies, but he rejects the interpretation that non-knowledge is the opposite of knowledge. Seeking to avoid that either-or polarity as an arbitrary, misleading, tedious, and theoretically and empirically unproductive traditional European antithesis between rational and irrational, as an unnecessary differentiation between believers and infidels, he posits knowledge instead as a context-dependent anthropological constant representing a continuum. From his perspective the key sociological question is how to address the issue of knowledge asymmetry and knowledge gaps in various spheres of modern society, such as the economy, politics, the life-world, and governance.
@incollection{stehr_knowing_2017,
	address = {Cham},
	series = {Knowledge and {Space}},
	title = {Knowing and {Not} {Knowing}},
	isbn = {978-3-319-44588-5},
	url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44588-5_7},
	abstract = {The author offers a sociological critique of the prevalent argument that the increasing polarization of knowledge and non-knowledge (or ignorance) has become a distinguishing feature of modernity. He acknowledges that significant asymmetries of knowledge result from differences between the positions that individuals and groups occupy in societies, but he rejects the interpretation that non-knowledge is the opposite of knowledge. Seeking to avoid that either-or polarity as an arbitrary, misleading, tedious, and theoretically and empirically unproductive traditional European antithesis between rational and irrational, as an unnecessary differentiation between believers and infidels, he posits knowledge instead as a context-dependent anthropological constant representing a continuum. From his perspective the key sociological question is how to address the issue of knowledge asymmetry and knowledge gaps in various spheres of modern society, such as the economy, politics, the life-world, and governance.},
	language = {en},
	urldate = {2020-10-02},
	booktitle = {Knowledge and {Action}},
	publisher = {Springer International Publishing},
	author = {Stehr, Nico},
	editor = {Meusburger, Peter and Werlen, Benno and Suarsana, Laura},
	year = {2017},
	doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-44588-5_7},
	keywords = {Anthropological constant, Ignorance, Irrational, Knowledge asymmetry, Modernity, Non-knowledge, Polarization of knowledge, Rational},
	pages = {113--125},
}

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