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Ignorance and Surprise

Science, Society, and Ecological Design

Part of Inside Technology

Author Matthias Gross
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Paperback
$40.00 US
The MIT Press
On sale Aug 03, 2021 | 256 Pages | 9780262543989
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The relationship between ignorance and surprise and a conceptual framework for dealing with the unexpected, as seen in ecological design projects.

Ignorance and surprise belong together: surprises can make people aware of their own ignorance. And yet, perhaps paradoxically, a surprising event in scientific research—one that defies prediction or risk assessment—is often a window to new and unexpected knowledge. In this book, Matthias Gross examines the relationship between ignorance and surprise, proposing a conceptual framework for handling the unexpected and offering case studies of ecological design that demonstrate the advantages of allowing for surprises and including ignorance in the design and negotiation processes.
 
Gross draws on classical and contemporary sociological accounts of ignorance and surprise in science and ecology and integrates these with the idea of experiment in society. He develops a notion of how unexpected occurrences can be incorporated into a model of scientific and technological development that includes the experimental handling of surprises. Gross discusses different projects in ecological design, including Chicago's restoration of the shoreline of Lake Michigan and Germany's revitalization of brownfields near Leipzig. These cases show how ignorance and surprise can successfully play out in ecological design projects, and how the acknowledgment of the unknown can become a part of decision making. The appropriation of surprises can lead to robust design strategies.
 
Ecological design, Gross argues, is neither a linear process of master planning nor a process of trial and error but a carefully coordinated process of dealing with unexpected turns by means of experimental practice.
List of Figures and Tables ix
Acknowledgments xi
1 Introduction: Brave the Unknown 1
Landscapes, Precaution, and Experiment 2
Objectives 6
Part I Concepts
2 Experiments and Surprises: Classical and Contemporary
Perspectives 13
Knowledge Societies and the Inevitability of Surprises 14
The Transdisciplinarity of Ecological Restoration 19
New Modes of Experimental Knowledge Production 25
Public Experiments: Producing Surprise and (Occasional) Delight 29
Toward an Empirically Grounded Typology of Surprises 34
New Nature, New Surprises: Return of an Extinct Carnivore 44
3 Knowledge Production and the Recurrence of Ignorance 49
Knowledge in a Sea of Ignorance 50
Nescience, Ignorance, and Nonknowledge 53
Studying the Other Side of Knowledge 59
Dynamics of the Unknown 67
More Questions than Answers: The Case of Malaria Control 71
Toward the Experimental Integration of Ignorance and Surprise 75
Part II Practice
4 Ecological Restoration and Experimental Learning 83
Ecology in Society: The Shifting Boundaries of Ecological Restoration 84
New Land: Shaping the Chicago Shoreline 91
viii Contents
Public Participation and Controversies over “ Real ”Nature 95
Surprises Appropriated: Native Birds, Nonnative Bushes, and the Arrival of Baby
Dunes 99
Maintaining Integrity in the Face of Surprises 106
Aligning Research and Heterogeneous Social Goals 109
Robust Restoration Strategies through Recursive Practice 114
 5 Postindustrial Landscapes as Laboratories of Change 121
 Europe ’ s Largest Landscape Construction Site 122
The Design of a Lake District: New Nature in Postmining Landscapes 128
Anticipated Acidifi cation and Surprising Heavy Metals 134
Fleeing Forward: Fast Flooding as Acting in the Face of Nonknowledge 140
Trust and Nonknowledge: Research in the Context of Its Application 143
Further into the Unknown: Rising Water, Shrinking Population 149
The Challenge of Keeping Surprises Surprising 155
Part III Outlook
 6 Welcome Surprises and New Edifi ces of Knowledge 165
Modernity and the Unanticipated Consequences of Progress 166
Research as Application: Toward an Experimental Knowledge Society 168
Perspective: Surprises as Opportunity, Nonknowledge as a Working Base 178
 Notes 183
 References 197
 Index 229
Matthias Gross is Senior Researcher in the Department of Urban and Environmental Sociology at Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research–UFZ.
Matthias Gross View titles by Matthias Gross

About

The relationship between ignorance and surprise and a conceptual framework for dealing with the unexpected, as seen in ecological design projects.

Ignorance and surprise belong together: surprises can make people aware of their own ignorance. And yet, perhaps paradoxically, a surprising event in scientific research—one that defies prediction or risk assessment—is often a window to new and unexpected knowledge. In this book, Matthias Gross examines the relationship between ignorance and surprise, proposing a conceptual framework for handling the unexpected and offering case studies of ecological design that demonstrate the advantages of allowing for surprises and including ignorance in the design and negotiation processes.
 
Gross draws on classical and contemporary sociological accounts of ignorance and surprise in science and ecology and integrates these with the idea of experiment in society. He develops a notion of how unexpected occurrences can be incorporated into a model of scientific and technological development that includes the experimental handling of surprises. Gross discusses different projects in ecological design, including Chicago's restoration of the shoreline of Lake Michigan and Germany's revitalization of brownfields near Leipzig. These cases show how ignorance and surprise can successfully play out in ecological design projects, and how the acknowledgment of the unknown can become a part of decision making. The appropriation of surprises can lead to robust design strategies.
 
Ecological design, Gross argues, is neither a linear process of master planning nor a process of trial and error but a carefully coordinated process of dealing with unexpected turns by means of experimental practice.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables ix
Acknowledgments xi
1 Introduction: Brave the Unknown 1
Landscapes, Precaution, and Experiment 2
Objectives 6
Part I Concepts
2 Experiments and Surprises: Classical and Contemporary
Perspectives 13
Knowledge Societies and the Inevitability of Surprises 14
The Transdisciplinarity of Ecological Restoration 19
New Modes of Experimental Knowledge Production 25
Public Experiments: Producing Surprise and (Occasional) Delight 29
Toward an Empirically Grounded Typology of Surprises 34
New Nature, New Surprises: Return of an Extinct Carnivore 44
3 Knowledge Production and the Recurrence of Ignorance 49
Knowledge in a Sea of Ignorance 50
Nescience, Ignorance, and Nonknowledge 53
Studying the Other Side of Knowledge 59
Dynamics of the Unknown 67
More Questions than Answers: The Case of Malaria Control 71
Toward the Experimental Integration of Ignorance and Surprise 75
Part II Practice
4 Ecological Restoration and Experimental Learning 83
Ecology in Society: The Shifting Boundaries of Ecological Restoration 84
New Land: Shaping the Chicago Shoreline 91
viii Contents
Public Participation and Controversies over “ Real ”Nature 95
Surprises Appropriated: Native Birds, Nonnative Bushes, and the Arrival of Baby
Dunes 99
Maintaining Integrity in the Face of Surprises 106
Aligning Research and Heterogeneous Social Goals 109
Robust Restoration Strategies through Recursive Practice 114
 5 Postindustrial Landscapes as Laboratories of Change 121
 Europe ’ s Largest Landscape Construction Site 122
The Design of a Lake District: New Nature in Postmining Landscapes 128
Anticipated Acidifi cation and Surprising Heavy Metals 134
Fleeing Forward: Fast Flooding as Acting in the Face of Nonknowledge 140
Trust and Nonknowledge: Research in the Context of Its Application 143
Further into the Unknown: Rising Water, Shrinking Population 149
The Challenge of Keeping Surprises Surprising 155
Part III Outlook
 6 Welcome Surprises and New Edifi ces of Knowledge 165
Modernity and the Unanticipated Consequences of Progress 166
Research as Application: Toward an Experimental Knowledge Society 168
Perspective: Surprises as Opportunity, Nonknowledge as a Working Base 178
 Notes 183
 References 197
 Index 229

Author

Matthias Gross is Senior Researcher in the Department of Urban and Environmental Sociology at Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research–UFZ.
Matthias Gross View titles by Matthias Gross

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