| ID | 112395 |
| Title Proper | Ignorance contract |
| Other Title Information | recollections of apartheid childhoods and the construction of epistemologies of ignorance |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Steyn, Melissa |
| Publication | 2012. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | Working with the recollections of everyday experiences of apartheid collected by the Apartheid Archives project, and drawing on the emerging theorization of ignorance in the critical philosophy of race, this article explores how an 'ignorance contract' - the tacit agreement to entertain ignorance - lies at the heart of a society structured in racial hierarchy. Unlike the conventional theorization of ignorance that regards ignorance as a matter of faulty individual cognition, or a collective absence of yet-to-be-acquired knowledge, ignorance is understood as a social achievement with strategic value. The apartheid narratives illustrate that for ignorance to function as social regulation, subjectivities must be formed that are appropriate performers of ignorance, disciplined in cognition, affect and ethics. Both white and black South Africans produced epistemologies of ignorance, although the terms of the contract were set by white society as the group with the dominant power. |
| `In' analytical Note | Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power Vol. 19, No.1; Jan 2012: p.8-25 |
| Journal Source | Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power Vol. 19, No.1; Jan 2012: p.8-25 |
| Key Words | Whiteness ; Apartheid ; South Africa ; Ignorance ; Epistemology ; Social Contract Theory ; Subjectivity |