ABSTRACT

This article explores the notion of ‘epistemic distances,’ which are operationalised by acts of showing as well as omitting. It is investigated through practices of market research where researchers aim to overcome a perceived lack or absence of market knowledge. However, such work relies on keeping clients and respondents away from many details of how the research is undertaken. Based on anthropological fieldwork, this article inquires into how the staff members of a market research firm limit what their clients and respondents know. Such study of the role of secrecy and non-knowledge in commissioned knowledge production takes its cue from the anthropology of secrecy and the agnotological study of ignorance. Further, the article draws on spatial imaginaries in constructivist market studies as well as the study of the role of distance and difference in understanding in science and technology studies. The text contributes to the understanding of knowledge making by showing how market research features epistemic as well as relational concerns. These are handled through the active managing of epistemic distances by shaping what involved actors know. The gap between current and desired knowledge is sometimes met only by maintaining distance.

摘要

本文探讨了“疫病距离”的概念，该现象通过展示和省略行为得以实现。它是通过市场研究的实践进行调查的，研究人员旨在克服市场知识的缺乏。但是，此类工作依赖于使客户和受访者远离研究工作的许多细节。基于人类学的田野调查，本文探究了市场研究公司的员工如何限制其客户和受访者的了解。对保密和非知识在委托知识生产中的作用的这种研究，是从保密的人类学和对愚昧的敏捷学研究中得到启发的。进一步，本文借鉴了建构主义市场研究中的空间想象力，以及在科学技术研究中距离和差异在理解中的作用的研究。文本通过显示市场研究如何体现认识论和关系关注来促进对知识的理解。通过塑造参与者所知道的内容，通过积极管理认知距离来处理这些问题。有时只有保持距离才能解决当前知识与期望知识之间的鸿沟。