Abstract
Like other highly regulated arenas, HIV clinics contain dark corners that some want to explore and others want to hide. Using ethnographic data on HIV clinics, I argue that awkward knowledge is kept inert in two main ways. Information can be sequestered, often under a pile of regulatory paper or a document describing an organization's routines, creating an illusion of knowledge while deflecting questions. Alternatively, with distributed ignorance people avoid seeing awkward patterns by using the division of labour and organizational boundaries as pretexts to keep key facts apart. Normal organizational processes that make a show of gathering and disseminating information are in fact often deployed strategically to create an illusion of knowledge while keeping important facts inert.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 17-41 |
| Number of pages | 25 |
| Journal | Economy and Society |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 2012 |
Funding
This paper benefited immensely from the comments of colleagues at the conference on ‘Strategic Unknowns: The Usefulness of Ambiguity and Ignorance in Organisational Life’ at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, at a seminar co-hosted by SCANCOR and WTO at Stanford University, and at a Sociology Department seminar at SUNY Buffalo. It also improved with the thoughtful suggestions of Arthur Stinchcombe, Jaimie Morse, Linsey McGoey and three anonymous reviewers. The American Bar Foundation and the National Science Foundation (NSF SES · 0319560) generously supported the research.
Keywords
- decoupling
- informed consent
- regulation
- ritualism
- routines
- strategic ignorance
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- History
- Economics and Econometrics
- General Social Sciences
