Spectacular law and order: photography, social harm, and the production of ignorance

Dymock, Alex. 2018. Spectacular law and order: photography, social harm, and the production of ignorance. In: Alana Barton and Howard Davis, eds. Ignorance, Power and Harm: Agnotology and The Criminological Imagination. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 189-211. ISBN 978-3-319-97342-5 [Book Section]

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Abstract or Description

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.

Item Type:

Book Section

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Law

Dates:

DateEvent
2018Published

Item ID:

27777

Date Deposited:

18 Feb 2020 17:24

Last Modified:

18 Feb 2020 17:24

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/27777

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