In person icon Epistemic Injustice – How Diversity and Inequality Impact Knowledge Practices

Abstract

Democratic theory teaches us that diversity has important epistemic qualities. As Iris M. Young has pointed out, the inclusion of multiple perspectives takes us a giant step towards enlarging thought. It helps us to take wiser decisions because it challenges the interpretive superiority of structurally privileged positions and shows us the partiality of our own experiences. And yet, in debates about expertise, knowledge and science, we rarely engage with the social justice conditions of reliable expertise. The panel aims at taking debates about ‘democratising expertise’ and the importance of ‘local knowledge’ a step further by asking in how far diversity and inequality issues impact knowledge practices. We apply the lens of epistemic injustice and oppression, which points to the injustice of socially disadvantaged speakers not being taken seriously as holders of knowledge. Combining empirical with normative-theoretical angles, the panel investigates, inter alia, the demographics of experts involved in policy-making, institutional remedies to different forms of epistemic injustice, the role of indigenous knowledge in global governance and the question of expert selection.

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