The art of unnoticing: Risk perception and contrived ignorance in China

Lou, Loretta Ieng Tak

Abstract

In China many petrochemical plants are adjacent to residential areas. Despite this, the people who live in these areas appear indifferent to the threat of toxic pollution and chemical explosions, even though they are aware of the danger. Building on historical and social studies of ignorance, I show how residents in a southern Chinese city live with the threat of petrochemicals by practicing what I call the “art of unnoticing,” a contrived form of ignorance that enables them to live with the reality of pollution and reclaim their agency in face of the unavoidable. In light of this, I reflect on the limit and complexity of the global environmental justice when willful ignorance is at work. The next step forward is to understand what it is that people are unnoticing, as well as what unnoticing can do to people's lifeworlds.

Citation

Lou, L. I. T. (2022). The art of unnoticing: Risk perception and contrived ignorance in China. American Ethnologist, 49(4), 580-594. https://doi.org/10.1111/amet.13099

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Sep 17, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022-11
• Deposit Date: Sep 17, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 16, 2023
• Journal: American Ethnologist
• Print ISSN: 0094-0496
• Electronic ISSN: 1548-1425
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 49
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 580-594
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/amet.13099
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1191558
• Related Public URLs: https://doi.org/10.1111/amet.13099