Gossip, Epistemology, and Power

Knowledge Underground

Karen Adkins

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9783319478395
• eBook ISBN:
  9783319478401
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Epistemology in Philosophy

This book explains how gossip contributes to knowledge. Karen Adkins marshals scholarship and case studies spanning centuries and disciplines to show that although gossip is a constant activity in human history, it has rarely been studied as a source of knowledge. People gossip for many reasons, but most often out of desire to make sense of the world while lacking access to better options for obtaining knowledge. This volume explores how, when our access to knowledge is blocked, gossip becomes a viable path to knowledge attainment, one that involves the asking of questions, the exchange of ideas, and the challenging of preconceived notions. 

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1: Introduction: Some Loose Talk About Gossip
• Chapter 2: Gossip’s Bad Reputation
• Chapter 3: The Word On the Street: Gossip’s Contributions to Knowledge
• Chapter 4: Failure to Communicate: Gossip as Institutional Conflict
• Chapter 5: Rumors Help the Enemy! Gossip in Politics
• Chapter 6: Weaponized Gossip
• Chapter 7: Gossip in the Ether: How the Internet Does, and Doesn’t, Change Gossip
• Chapter 8: Conclusion: Schools for Scandal
• Works Cited
• Index