Academic Knowledge and Uncivil Disobedience

Lucas Miotto, Himani Bhakuni

Research output: Working paper

Abstract

There has been a renaissance of the debate around epistemic marginalisation in different academic fields. Most would agree that restricting low-income and epistemically marginalised researchers’ access to academic knowledge amounts to a form of wrongful exclusion. In this paper we argue that academics who sit at an advantageous epistemic location have a duty not to take part, support, or enable practices that restrict marginalised researchers’ access to academic knowledge. We also claim that, coupled with a few plausible assumptions, this duty entails a subsequent duty to practice acts of academic uncivil disobedience, such as copyright violation and illegal dissemination of knowledge resources with researchers at epistemically disadvantageous locations. We conclude by highlighting the ways in which this form of uncivil disobedience helps us understand how other forms of uncivil disobedience can strengthen the very sort of considerations that the duty to obey the law purports to protect.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusIn preparation - 2024

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