Ignorance and Change: Anticipatory Knowledge and the European Refugee Crisis

Ignorance and Change examines the European refugee crisis of 2015–2016 through the lens of ignorance studies, highlighting how the media, decision-makers, and academics projected and reified the future in relation to the crisis, asylum system, and proposed solutions. It demonstrates how ignorance and projectivity were essential for new Member States to manage the crisis and achieve a higher level of autonomy in relation to the EU. The book challenges the dominant interest in defining ignorance and incorporates the concept of the future into ignorance studies, offering an erudite background, empirical research, and analytical tools for scholars and policymakers interested in crisis studies, public policy, ignorance studies, social theory, migration studies, and sociology of the future.

Format: Hardback
Length: 250 pages
Publication date: 06 November 2020
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Inc

Ignorance and Change delves into the European refugee crisis of 2015-2016, shedding light on how the media, decision-makers, and academics engaged in the projection and reification of the future concerning the crisis, the asylum system, and proposed solutions. This book seeks to answer why recent crises fail to bring about meaningful change, often leading to the replication of regimes of ignorance, inefficient knowledge, and expertise practices. By shifting the focus from the issue of change to our projections and expectations of what change will look like, the book offers valuable insights.

Drawing from three comprehensive case studies—Poland, Hungary, and Romania—the book demonstrates how ignorance and projectivity played pivotal roles in the new Member States' ability to manage the crisis and achieve a higher level of autonomy within the EU. Employing an innovative interactional approach to ignorance, the book bridges ignorance studies with sociology of future and migration research. It challenges the dominant notion of defining ignorance by shifting the focus from what ignorance is to what ignorance does. The book introduces concepts such as "projective agency," "reification of the future," "projection by proxy," and "projectors of EU asylum policies."

This book provides an erudite background, comprehensive empirical research, and original analytical tools for graduate students, researchers, and policy makers interested in crisis studies, public policy, ignorance studies, social theory, migration studies, and sociology of the future. By exploring the dynamics of ignorance and projectivity in the context of the European refugee crisis, Ignorance and Change offers valuable insights into the complexities of managing crises and fostering meaningful change.

Weight: 552g
Dimension: 162 x 241 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780815380696