The Failure of Knowledge / Knowledges of Failure

知识的失败/失败的知识

• 批准号: 433134351
• 负责人: Dr. Katharina Motyl
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Anglistik II: Section American Studies
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Scientific Networks
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/433134351?language=en
• 关键词: Failure; Knowledge; Knowledges

Failure and questions of knowledge are inextricably linked. The assumption that knowledge is socially constructed and that its circulation is inflected by power relations, gives rise to the question how and why we know that someone or something has failed. The concept of failure (and the self-identification as a ‘failed individual’) presupposes specific epistemologies that, in turn, were produced by social, cultural, political and economic processes. Thus, this network hypothesizes that knowledge has agency in the formation of 'failed individuals' and the rhetoric that underlies the success/failure binary. Knowledge can both prevent and facilitate failure – restricted access to knowledge can impact someone’s chances to participate socially and economically, while the very structures and systems of knowledge are instrumental in producing normative assumptions and hierarchies that disqualify certain subject positions as 'failed' (for example, heteronormativity). At the same time, the subversive knowledges of those considered / self-identifying as failed individuals afford particularly astute insights into a given hegemonic order, and also constitute potent repositories from which articulations of alternative futures to that very hegemonic order may draw. Recognizing oneself as failed can also open up spaces of resistance and pleasure. Subversive and subaltern knowledges, consequently, can productively challenge dominant discourses and social structures. The production of ‘knowledge from below’ often relies on social practices and medial genres that have traditionally not been regarded as generators of knowledge (e.g. popular culture or tacit knowledge). In addition to examining the agency of knowledge in the production of failure as well as the knowledges of 'failed individuals', this project also scrutinizes the failure of knowledge. The current historical moment is witnessing increased challenges from divergent political angles to the ideal of knowledge as rational and universal rooted in the European Enlightenment. The ascent of the Alt-Right, for instance, has helped usher in the so-called 'post-factual' age, in which expert knowledge / established modes of knowledge production are being ignored or denied (e.g. climate-change denial). Established modes of knowledge production, however, are also cast as failed by those who seek to decolonize Western epistemologies and institutions of knowledge production. The network will feature a self-reflexive dimension in that members will not exclusively present their research findings to academic audiences, but also to the interested public, in the spirit of the Public Humanities.

失败和知识问题是密不可分的。知识是社会建构的，知识的流通受到权力关系的影响，这一假设引出了一个问题：我们如何以及为什么知道某人或某事失败了。失败的概念（以及自我认同为“失败的个人”）预先假定了特定的认识论，而这些认识论又是由社会、文化、政治和经济进程产生的。因此，这个网络假设，知识的机构在形成“失败的个人”和修辞的成功/失败的二元。知识既可以防止失败，也可以促进失败-限制获得知识的机会会影响一个人参与社会和经济活动的机会，而知识的结构和系统本身则有助于产生规范性假设和等级制度，使某些学科职位不符合“失败”的条件（例如，异规范性）。与此同时，那些被认为/自我认定为失败者的人的颠覆性知识，为特定的霸权秩序提供了特别敏锐的洞察力，也构成了有力的宝库，可以从中表达出这种霸权秩序的替代未来。承认自己失败也可以打开反抗和快乐的空间。因此，颠覆性和底层知识可以富有成效地挑战主导话语和社会结构。“自下而上的知识”的产生往往依赖于传统上不被视为知识产生者的社会实践和媒介类型（例如流行文化或隐性知识）。除了研究知识在失败产生中的作用以及“失败的个人”的知识之外，这个项目还审查了知识的失败。当前的历史时刻正见证着来自不同政治角度的越来越多的挑战，这些挑战是对植根于欧洲启蒙运动的理性和普遍的知识理想的挑战。例如，另类右翼的崛起帮助迎来了所谓的“后事实”时代，在这个时代，专家知识/既定的知识生产模式被忽视或否认（例如否认气候变化）。然而，那些试图使西方知识论和知识生产机构非殖民化的人也认为既定的知识生产模式是失败的。该网络将具有自我反思的维度，因为成员不仅会向学术受众展示他们的研究成果，而且还会本着公共人文精神向感兴趣的公众展示。