Thierry Ribault

The proposed research focuses on the nature, place, and role of knowledge in a nuclear society. It aims to bring out the critical articulation between knowledge production and human protection. The case of the Fukushima nuclear disaster will be the central mobilized "empirical experience". "Agnotology" makes ignorance itself a subject of study, and, rather than asking what science is or what grounds it, asks how and why we end up not knowing certain things, even when trustworthy and attested knowledge is available.

The ambition is to extend the methodology developed in the field of "the production of ignorance" and to test the relevance of the concept of "agnotology" in the nuclear context—i.e. post-disaster Fukushima—and to examine the deliberate creation of ignorance in the field of science and nuclear technology and the epistemological and political consequences of this. The question of ignorance thus teams up with investigation of the public’s ability to acquire an understanding of the debates. Hence the connection between the idea of the Public and the publicity of knowledge in the nuclear domain, and the removal of nuclear realities from public and academic knowledge comprise the epistemological orientation of my project.

Through this contribution to this socio-politics of ignorance, four outcomes can be expected:

(i) A better understanding of the role of "counter-expertise" in the democratic conversation on nuclear power through an analysis of the different forms in which science is re-appropriated by citizens and the efficacy of this in terms of governance;

(ii) A critical analysis of the concept of "empowerment": is this concept becoming a new tool for social control, or can it still be considered an emancipative tool leading to effective democratization?

(iii) A re-assessment of the "human security" framework. The question of public information and the transmission of knowledge to future generations also pertains to human security, since not having access to information or technical expertise reduces "capabilities";

(iv) A contribution to the development of the threat paradigm versus risk paradigm. The study proposes to mobilize and articulate the concepts of threat and denial or dis-knowledge, in order to ask how our society produces ignorance (and insecurity) about the nuisances (and disasters) it contributes to generate. Distancing itself from the risk paradigm thus implies a reappraisal of our relation to morals and to politics, and to human existence.