Nichtwissenskulturen und Nichtwissensdiskurse

Sciences do not only generate new knowledge but at the same time various forms of ignorance. Recently, the fact of this seemingly paradoxical „co-production“ of knowing and not-knowing is increasingly taken into account in science studies. Using the concept of “cultures of non-knowledge” one can theoretically understand and empirically explore how epistemic practices simultaneously produce knowledge and new spaces of both known and unknown unknowns. Scientific knowledge cultures, therefore, are also cultures of non-knowledge. These show characteristic features which enable us to both distinguish such cultures from and compare them to each other. The different cultures of non-knowledge are important resources in public and political debates about how to deal with unknowns. In such discourses of non-knowledge, explicit recognition of a plurality of equally valid and legitimate cultures of non-knowledge will provide new perspectives and modes of institutional reactions.