Epistemic Injustice in Institutional Interaction

Epistemic injustice has recently become an increasingly salient topic in humanities and social sciences. It refers to unfair treatment of individuals in their capacity as knowers. Miranda Fricker defined its two main types: testimonial Injustice concerns unjust deflation of a speaker’s credibility due to prejudice (e.g., gender or ethnic stereotypes). Hermeneutical Injustice takes place when a group or category of people is put into a disadvantageous position in trying to make sense of their experiences (e.g., stigmatized groups).

Despite a wide and growing interest in epistemic justice, there are still relatively little detailed empirical studies on institutional practices or interactional behavior. In this presentation, some initial observations on epistemic (in)justice in talk and action in interaction in institutional practices are offered. The study is based on ethnomethodologically inspired multimodal interaction analysis. Data is mainly video recordings in various institutional environments in Finland. The main institutional spheres are addiction treatment and management of research organizations. The areas studied provide an encompassing spectrum of epistemic (in)justices in interaction.

Institutions may be seen as an arena for epistemic injustices, as institutional practices with their power dynamics are selective in enabling voices to be heard or marginalized. In that way institutions can be considered key modalities in purporting epistemic injustice by unfairly discrediting or excluding individuals from knowledge-building processes, reinforcing systemic biases and unequal access to authority. However, the relationship between institutions and epistemic injustices is extremely complex. For instance, in addiction therapies confrontational practices bear many resemblances to epistemic injustice. Similarly, management (eventually) narrows down the views of the organization in a manner that may resemble silencing. Through details of recorded interactions, the presentation offers social practices observable amounting to a set of questions concerning justifiability of epistemic asymmetries. The presentation poses many questions but tries also show a direction toward answers.