Clash of cultural and individual knowledge systems
July 14, 2008
[Deutscher Titel: Aufeinanderprallen von kulturellen und individuellen wissenssystemen (Text übersetzen: Deutsch)]
Meusburger, P. et al (Eds.)
Clashes of Knowledge. Orthodoxies and Heterodoxies in Science and Religion.
Berlin u. a.: Springer (Knowledge and Space, Vol. 1), 2008. VIII, 230 S., 978-1-4020-5554-6 (hkb) 978-1-4020-5555-3 (Online)
Abstract: “Clashes of Knowledge” is the first volume of a series called “Knowledge and Space” dealing with spatial disparities of knowledge and the impact of the spatial context on the production and application of knowledge. The contributions in this book explore the conflicts between various types of knowledge, especially between orthodox and heterodox knowledge systems, which range from religious fundamentalism to heresies within the scientific community itself. Does the traditional distinction between “belief” and “knowledge” still make sense? How is the difference between knowledge and belief understood in different cultural contexts? How have the religious-based knowledge systems been displaced in their hegemonic role by “scientific” knowledge? In which ways do the agents of hegemonic, orthodox knowledge interact with the representatives of deviating, heterodox knowledge? These and many other questions are addressed by scholars of geography, history of science, philosophy, psychology, religious studies, sociology, theology, etc. A number of articles describe how scientists attempt to systematically exclude implausible knowledge claims from their disciplines and how the boundaries of science are subject to historical change and to spatial and cultural contexts.
Knowledge systems can also clash at the level of the individual. Why do people often ignore information that contradicts their personal “knowledge”? Under what conditions are people prepared to give up firm beliefs and integrate new information that contradicts their prior knowledge? This book thus addresses many fields in the academy but also learned individuals who are interested in the often puzzling spatial and cultural disparities of knowledge and clashes of knowledge.
Written for: Social scientists, geographers, economists and historians of science
To the publisher’s websites of the book:
© Springer
Entry Filed under: Articles, Books, Conferences. .
borisj
1.
borisj | July 14, 2008 at 11:50 am
Corresponding symposuim:
Clashes of Knowledge, 19.-22. April 2006, Heidelberg, Germany
A symposium in the “Knowledge and Space“ symposium series:
“The Symposia in the Studio of the Villa Bosch at Heidelberg deal with the generation, diffusion and application of knowledge under special consideration of the role of the spatial context and the spatial dimension of knowledge-disparities. The topic Knowledge and Space covers various interrelated research questions, which are of great political and economical relevance to society.”