You have full access to this open access chapter. Embracing refused knowledge implies a significant personal turn. This chapter addresses the most common characteristics of the biographical trajectories of experts and laypeople endorsing refused knowledge. It shows that such processes are not merely cognitive in nature but also emotional, behavioural, social and material. Moreover, they coincide rarely with a sudden change but are the gradual deepening of an attitude. The chapter highlights that usually the transition is not driven by an anti-scientific attitude, but by a bitter criticism of institutional science joined with the enthusiastic emulation of its procedures and language.
Those adhering to refused knowledge adopt a simplified understanding of the scientific method based on a para-scientific interpretation of practices typical of Western rationalism, such as deductive logic, empirical evidence and systematic scepticism.
You have full access to this open access chapter, Download chapter PDF. While apparently merely a cognitive act, it is really much more than this. Hence, taking part in a social world characterised by refused knowledge is often the outcome of a significant personal turn.
Rather than ascribed it is acquired through a biographical transition. The biographical trajectories of people endorsing refused knowledge of any kind frequently reveal a gradual shift away from an original state of alignment with an institutional knowledge system—that is, a system of beliefs legitimised and promoted by certain epistemic institutions in society, such as science, the educational system and medical authorities—to alternative ones refused by such institutions and shared by a minority community.
Bridges with certain friends and relatives may be burnt, new political engagement with a niche party or movement may reshape life interests and time allocation regimes, and refusing science-based medical advice may lead to long periods of illness and an ongoing struggle against public welfare health systems. Such personal transitions are not merely cognitive in nature, then, but also emotional, behavioural, social and material. Moreover, analysing the processes leading people to turn to refused knowledge is not simply of use in producing a thorough description of refused knowledge social worlds; it also increases our understanding of the dynamics of knowledge construction and stabilisation in general, including scientific knowledge see Chap.
