Kempner, J ; Merz, JF ; Bosk, CL "Forbidden Knowledge: Public Controversy and the Production of Nonknowledge " SOCIOLOGICAL FORUM Volume: 26 Issue: 3 Pages: 475-500 Published: SEP 2011

[Eugene Garfield]

E-mail Address: jkempner at rci.rutgers.edu

TITLE : Forbidden Knowledge: Public Controversy and the Production of 
Nonknowledge 
Author(s): Kempner, J (Kempner, Joanna)1; Merz, JF (Merz, Jon F.)2; Bosk, CL 
(Bosk, Charles L.)3 

Source: SOCIOLOGICAL FORUM  Volume: 26   Issue: 3   Pages: 475-500   
Published: SEP 2011 

Abstract: Sociologists, philosophers, and historians of science tend to focus 
their attention on the production of knowledge. More recently, scholars have 
begun to investigate more fully the structures and processes that impede the 
production of knowledge. This article draws on interviews conducted with 41 
academic researchers to present a phenomenological examination of "forbidden 
knowledge''-a phrase that refers to knowledge considered too sensitive, 
dangerous, or taboo to produce. Forbidden knowledge has traditionally been 
understood as a set of formal controls on what ought not be known. We argue 
that the social processes that create forbidden knowledge are embedded in 
the everyday practices of working scientists. The narrative legacies of past 
controversies in science are of particular importance, as they serve as a tool 
that working scientists use to justify, construct, and hide their acceptance of 
forbidden knowledge. As a result, the precise contents of forbidden knowledge 
are fluid, fuzzy, essentially contested, specialty specific, locally created, and 
enforced. 
Document Type: Article 
Language: English 
Author Keywords: knowledge; legitimacy; phenomenology; public sociology; 
science; social control 
KeyWords Plus: POLITICS-OF-REPRODUCTION; MORAL ECONOMY; SCIENCE; 
INDUSTRY; REFLECTIONS 
Reprint Address: Kempner, Joanna (reprint author), Rutgers State Univ, Dept 
Sociol, 26 Nichol Ave, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 USA 
Addresses: 
1. Rutgers State Univ, Dept Sociol, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 USA 
2. Univ Penn, Ctr Bioeth, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA 
3. Univ Penn, Dept Sociol, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA 
E-mail Address: jkempner at rci.rutgers.edu 

Publisher: WILEY-BLACKWELL, COMMERCE PLACE, 350 MAIN ST, MALDEN 
02148, MA USA, http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/ 

Discipline: SOCIOLOGY & SOCIAL SCIENCES 
CC Editions/Collections: Social & Behavioral Sciences (SBS) 
ISI Document Delivery No: 804MF 
ISSN: 0884-8971 

TIMES  CITED: 0