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Knowledge Rites and the Right Not to Know
Author(s) -
Sperling Stefan
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
polar: political and legal anthropology review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.529
H-Index - 27
eISSN - 1555-2934
pISSN - 1081-6976
DOI - 10.1525/pol.2007.30.2.269
Subject(s) - german , ethnography , state (computer science) , citizen science , sociology , political science , media studies , public relations , anthropology , history , computer science , botany , archaeology , algorithm , biology
This paper discusses a 2001 citizen conference hosted by the Dresden Hygiene Museum as exemplifying the pedagogical dimensions of science–state–citizen relations in Germany. It reads the conference as an exercise in knowledge‐making and citizen‐making and argues that two notions of Bildung underlie contemporary German efforts to foster citizen engagement with science. These two conceptions of citizen–state relations are in tension with one another in efforts to gain citizens' informed consent to new technologies. Using ethnographic observations and historical readings, the paper interprets the conference outcomes as reflecting and perpetuating these tensions.