Ignorance Production and Medicine

In recent decades the ignorance production scholarship has revealed ignorance is far more than simply a void to be filled by pursuing more research. Ignorance is also a resource for those in power, who will actively produce it about issues that could undermine their political agendas and power. An example is the tobacco industry’s numerous activities to distract from, deny and downplay research that indicated their products were harmful. Another is the lead industry’s intimidation of researchers who studied the health effects of their products, to discourage further production of such knowledge.

For this session we invite papers that investigate ignorance production related to medical practice. Medicine is a particularly fertile terrain to investigate as producing inconvenient knowledge about health issues can create significant political repercussions for those in power. A potential site to explore is the obscuring of diagnostic practices, including the social process through which diagnostic categories get developed and modified, the role pharmaceutical manufacturers play in such processes, and how category definition and use varies across countries. Another option is exploring efforts to obscure sources of disease, such as environmental pollution, alcohol, processed foods, or medical interventions. Still another option is ignorance production pertaining to treatments, including about side effects related to hegemonic practices (such as pharmaceuticals, radiation, and implants), social processes through which treatments become institutionalized, and alternative treatment practices that are used effectively in other societies.

Beyond these options, we encourage researchers to explore and illuminate other examples of ignorance production in medicine.