Events
Sociology Seminar Series event led by Technology Economy and Society Cluster
Speaker: Professor Linsey McGoey
Abstract:
In a small town in rural Ohio called East Palestine, there鈥檚 a single bar. In this bar, you鈥檒l often find reruns of Yellowstone playing on TV screens, signifying a type of rural resonance and pride at a time of deepening political polarization. This talk explores that rural resonance by drawing on theories of polarization, as well as qualitative research carried out in different Anglosphere nations. I explore the role of new and old technologies in fuelling different political attitudes during an era of widespread economic immiseration. I develop concepts such as 鈥榦racular power鈥� and 鈥榩hantomwealth鈥� to theorize this interview data. I also critically analyse various cornerstone terms used in the past to understand political discord and economic injustice, including the phrases 鈥榳hite ignorance鈥� and 鈥榬acial capitalism鈥� and their limitations.
Linsey McGoey is professor of sociology at the University of Essex. She works across social theory, economic sociology and the epistemology of knowledge and ignorance. Books include No Such Thing as a Free Gift (Verso) and The Unknowers: How Strategic Ignorance Rules the World (Bloomsbury). Her next book, Judgment Machines: Oracular Power and the Making of Truth, is under contract with University of Toronto Press.