Uncertainty
Nearly two years into a global pandemic, uncertainty has profoundly unsettled both our personal and political lives. Some of its sources are epistemic: How long will vaccine immunity last? Do rising prices threaten economic recovery? Others are sharply existential: How will I pay rent next month? Will I see my loved one again? At no other moment in the twenty-first century has there been such widespread unease about what the future holds.

Uncertainty is perhaps never more consequential than where it intersects with political power. Leading this issue’s forum, Sheila Jasanoff, pioneering scholar of science and technology studies, argues that public policy could benefit from a much more serious acknowledgment of uncertainty. In place of the hubris of technocratic expertise, Jasanoff calls for “technologies of humility”—institutional mechanisms, including greater citizen participation, for incorporating a wider range of experience and views in our schemes of democratic governance. Respondents to Jasanoff consider other causes of pandemic mismanagement and ask whether humility is the best response.

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Uncertainty
Nearly two years into a global pandemic, uncertainty has profoundly unsettled both our personal and political lives. Some of its sources are epistemic: How long will vaccine immunity last? Do rising prices threaten economic recovery? Others are sharply existential: How will I pay rent next month? Will I see my loved one again? At no other moment in the twenty-first century has there been such widespread unease about what the future holds.

Uncertainty is perhaps never more consequential than where it intersects with political power. Leading this issue’s forum, Sheila Jasanoff, pioneering scholar of science and technology studies, argues that public policy could benefit from a much more serious acknowledgment of uncertainty. In place of the hubris of technocratic expertise, Jasanoff calls for “technologies of humility”—institutional mechanisms, including greater citizen participation, for incorporating a wider range of experience and views in our schemes of democratic governance. Respondents to Jasanoff consider other causes of pandemic mismanagement and ask whether humility is the best response.

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Uncertainty

Uncertainty

by Sheila Jasanoff, et al
Uncertainty

Uncertainty

by Sheila Jasanoff, et al

Paperback

$15.95 
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Overview

Nearly two years into a global pandemic, uncertainty has profoundly unsettled both our personal and political lives. Some of its sources are epistemic: How long will vaccine immunity last? Do rising prices threaten economic recovery? Others are sharply existential: How will I pay rent next month? Will I see my loved one again? At no other moment in the twenty-first century has there been such widespread unease about what the future holds.

Uncertainty is perhaps never more consequential than where it intersects with political power. Leading this issue’s forum, Sheila Jasanoff, pioneering scholar of science and technology studies, argues that public policy could benefit from a much more serious acknowledgment of uncertainty. In place of the hubris of technocratic expertise, Jasanoff calls for “technologies of humility”—institutional mechanisms, including greater citizen participation, for incorporating a wider range of experience and views in our schemes of democratic governance. Respondents to Jasanoff consider other causes of pandemic mismanagement and ask whether humility is the best response.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781946511669
Publisher: Haymarket Books
Publication date: 01/18/2022
Series: Boston Review / Forum
Pages: 160
Sales rank: 227,456
Product dimensions: 6.20(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.41(d)

About the Author

Sheila Jasanoff is Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. She is the author of Can Science Make Sense of Life? and other books and the coeditor of Earthly Politics: Local and Global in Environmental Governance (MIT Press, 2004).


Table of Contents

Editors' Note Joshua Cohen Deborah Chasman 6

Forum

Humility in Pandemic Times Sheila Jasanoff 9

Forum Responses

The Contours of Ignorance Zeynep Pamuk 30

The Lives of Others Alexandre White 35

Why We Don't Act Jana Bacevic 40

Reaping What We Sow Jay S. Kaufman 45

Final Response Sheila Jasanoff 50

Essays

Imagine the Worst Oded Na'aman 58

Risk Society Caley Horan 74

The Limits of Social Science Lily Hu 89

Seeking Certainty in Uncertain Times Michael Jackson 103

What Good Can Dreaming Do? Annie Howard 118

We Don't Know, But Let's Try It Simon Torracinta 132

Contributors 157

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