7/7
A new reflexivity on, and interest in, public sociology and politics of knowledge production are sorely needed in journalism and science, engineering and medicine field practices and curricula in the 21st century.
#publicsociology #history #ideologycritique #systemspolitics #socialtheory #politicaltheory
*Reference citation
Duggan, Lisa. The Twilight of Equality: Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics, and the Attack on Democracy. Beacon Press: Boston, MA, USA; 2003.
6/7
Everyday life, for that matter, is political. Even a pleasant smile can be political if it is deployed as a commodity to garner social capital and influence.
5/7
📍 The current debates and questions on politics of knowledge can in part be traced back to the 17th century when the classical liberalism disarticulated politics from economy and science, e.g., as reviewed and unpacked elsewhere earlier.* (see 7/7)
The initial leaders of the Enlightenment project (e.g., Francis Bacon) and their disciples have uncritically championed the assumption of value-free apolitical knowledge production for the last 400 years.
4/7
📍 The danger is not that knowledge is inherently political but sweeping politics under the carpet. If we do not make politics and power transparent, they remain unaccountable. When we do not address politics of knowledge production, it creates additional uncertainties over and beyond the existential ones such as climate change and planetary health.
3/7
📍 Decades of research with knowledge workers in fields such as science, medicine, engineering, humanities and journalism have shown that production and communication of knowledge are inherently political (value-loaded) acts and cannot be otherwise. It is impossible to separate the knowledge from the knower and her/his social and political context.
Engagement with publics and politics does not transform knowledge from an apolitical to a political status. Knowledge is already political.
2/7
📍 E.H. Carr noted in 1939, the dawn of the World War II, that "political science is the science not only of what is, but of what ought to be." And so is journalism, especially in a time of global populism, authoritarian governance and post-truth. Ignoring this reality can diminish the much-needed function of journalism as an advocate for accountability in the public space.
1/7
How can we create #innovative and #just #collective #resources for #democracy and #solidarity among #knowledge #workers in the 21st century?
I have been thinking about and researching this question over the past decade in Toronto. Sharing an article, I have written in 2018 which unpacks this question that remains relevant in this decade. The op-ed also rethinks journalism and #politics of knowledge in the 21st #century.
📍 https://www.agos.com.tr/en/article/the-fly-on-the-wall-21777
Artun Faliro