Epistemological pluralism and the ‘politics of choice’

Abstract

This paper argues that the destructive effects of the hegemony of scientific rationality on society, culture and politics can be countered by an approach of 'epistemological pluralism' that legitimises and deploys other ways of knowing. Originally proposed as a matter of pragmatic theory choice in the context of risk decisions (S.A. Healy, Journal of Risk Research, in press) this paper discusses the ramifications of 'epistemological pluralism' for wider 'knowledge politics' emphasising how it facilitates choice over the futures available to us. 'Epistemological pluralism' rests on the contention that epistemology is a matter of practice in which issues of context, process and procedure and not metaphysical or ontological abstractions take precedent. The focus on practice centres attention on the means by which knowledge is generated, disseminated and applied, and due process is then readily characterised in terms such as those of openness, transparency and participation. The concluding discussion explores the political implications of the legitimation of difference involved in a politics of knowledge conceived along these lines. "I would be tempted to say that we might be shifting slowly from an ideal of calculability to a new ideal of descriptibility. Calculations allowed [us] to shortcut politics by ignoring all of the externalities that were shed outside of the realm of what is to be calculated. Capitalism itself, in this view, is one among many of the powerful ways of distributing what is to be calculated—internalities—and what is not to be calculated—externalities. The limits of capitalism as a mode of calculation—not as a mode of production—is that it renders itself voluntarily very inefficient at calculating what it has left aside: unintended consequences, entanglement, due process, externalities." (B. Latour, Concepts and Transformation 3 (112) (1998) 97–112).