Emerging Epistemologies: The Changing Fabric of Knowledge in Postnormal Times

Ziauddin Sardar

Jul 2022 · International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT)

About this ebook

Our established, age-old notions of knowledge have ceased to be meaningful in postnormal times. What we define as true knowledge, and the ways in which we create it, have changed radically. The emergence of ‘Big Data’ and Artificial Intelligence, as well as ‘fake news’, ‘alternative facts’, ‘deep fake’, and ‘post-truth’ have changed the nature of knowledge production. Established disciplines, such as economics, sociology, anthropology, political science, have lost their significance. Revengeful capitalism, based on profit-driven algorithms, has not only led to environmental destruction, but has also ruined our understanding of what actually constitutes knowledge. In an era that defines societies by questions of knowledge, it becomes necessary and urgent to ask: how is knowledge produced, how is it distributed, and who decides what is true knowledge and what is not?

 Emerging Epistemologies explores the changing nature of knowledge production and investigates how emerging epistemologies are transforming our perceptions of the pres - ent and the future. The contributors to the volume examine digital landscapes, zombie disciplines, higher education, the role of metaphysics, and epistemological justice; and argue that epistemology does not exist in a vacuum but is determined and embedded in the worldview and culture of society. The chaos and contradiction that accompanies our increasingly complex world requires us to see through ‘the smog of ignorance’, and seek new ways of thinking and creating knowledge that promotes sustainability, diversity, social justice and appreciates different ways of knowing, being, and doing.

About the author

writer, cultural critic and futurist, is Director of the Centre for Postnormal Policy and Future Studies. Formerly, Professor of Law and Society at Middlesex University, he is author of over 50 books, including two acclaimed volumes of autobiography: Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim and Balti Britain: A Provocative Journey Through Asian Britain. A collection of his writings is available as Islam, Postmodernism and Other Futures: A Ziauddin Sardar Reader and How Do You Know? Reading Ziauddin Sardar on Islam, Science and Cultural Relations. His most recent books are Reading the Qur’an and Mecca: The Sacred City. Professor Sardar has worked as a science journalist for Nature and New Scientist, as reporter for London Weekend Television and Channel 4, and has made numerous television and radio programmes. A former columnist on the New Statesman, and editor of Futures, the monthly journal of foresight and futures studies, he served as a Commissioner on the Equality and Human Rights Commission from 2006 to 2009. A well-known futurist and public intellectual, Professor Sardar is editor of the influential quarterly, Critical Muslim.