Day Twenty-Three: Ignorance

SDS 237: Data Ethnography

Lindsay Poirier

Write a definition for the word ‘ignorance’ that might appear in a dictionary. (No looking it up!)

Enter up to three words or (short) phrases that indicate what ‘ignorance’ is.

PollEv.com/lindsaysmith

Ignorance Concept Map

1. Select at least eight words from the cloud to write on sticky notes.
2. Organize these terms in a meaningful way on your paper. Feel free to draw lines between interconnected terms.
3. Identify three categories of ignorance represented on your map. Be sure to write them somewhere on the map.
4. Take a photo the finished map, and post it in the #random channel on Slack.

Reading Discussion(s!)

Data Activism

• A range of practices that confront the politics of datafication
• May involve affirmative data action
• May involve resistance to data systems

Agnotology: the study of ignorance or doubt as invoked by various cultural forces

Ignorance as Stimulous (a.k.a. curiosity)

Selective Ignorance (a.k.a. “undone science”)

Engineered Ignorance (a.k.a. “disinformation”)

Virtuous Ignorance (a.k.a. barring unethical research)

Scales of Data Knowledge Production

• Epistemology
• Infrastructure
• Individual Labor
• Collective Rituals
• Institutions and Incentives
• Advocacy, Activism, and Discourse

• Ignorance as Stimuluous (a.k.a. curiosity)
• Selective Ignorance (a.k.a. “undone science”)
• Engineered Ignorance (a.k.a. “disinformation”)
• Virtuous Ignorance (a.k.a. barring unethical research)