Knowledge Resistance: How We Avoid Insight from Others

Why do people and groups ignore, deny and resist knowledge about society's many problems? In a world of 'alternative facts', 'fake news' that some believe could be remedied by 'factfulness', the question has never been more pressing. After years of ideologically polarised debates on the topic, this book seeks to further advance our understanding of the phenomenon of knowledge resistance by integrating insights from the social, economic and evolutionary sciences. It identifies simplistic views in public and scholarly debates about what facts, knowledge and human motivations are and what 'rational' use of information actually means. The examples used include controversies about nature-nurture, climate change, gender roles, vaccination, genetically modified food and artificial intelligence. Drawing on cutting-edge scholarship and personal experiences of culture clashes, the book is aimed at the general, educated public as well as students and scholars interested in the interface of human motivation and the urgent social problems of today.

Author: Mikael Klintman
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 11/02/2020
Pages: 264
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.40w x 0.90d
ISBN13: 9781526151742
ISBN10: 152615174X
BISAC Categories:
- Business & Economics | Knowledge Capital
- Social Science | Sociology | General
- Body, Mind & Spirit | Ancient Mysteries & Controversial Knowledge

About the Author
Mikael Klintman is Professor of Sociology at the University of Lund, Sweden, Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, London School of Economics and Political Science and a former Wallenberg Fellow of Environment and Sustainability at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology