Image credit to a Twin Peaks Facebook meme group 🙂
Is there a way to escape unconscious bias? The panel last week talked about how there is no way to escape it, so we might as well face it squarely and incorporate it into our work. Carisa Showden’s book (2014) made a good point in explaining how one’s position in the world serves as a source of knowledge, and our historical, geographic and cultural boundaries provide the ground for political and self-definition (p. 4).
But in accepting that we can’t escape our own bias, when we work within the framework of academia we operate under an elitist institution that carries a much more pervasive bias, sometimes running centuries deep. The current methods of academic research do not always meaningfully include the subjects that are being researched. Vulnerable people may be faced with a cold, calculated and clinical form of interrogation, and see their words skewed to prop up pre-existing beliefs.
It’s just so easy to be stuck in an echo chamber in these individualist times. This lockdown has accelerated the alienation present in modern society. Technology was already rendering human relationships obsolete, and our lives were already being replaced by apps that do basic things for us made by out-of-touch Silicon Valley tech bros. There is now a distinct work-from-home class, and those in the upper pay bracket now have no reason to interact with the average person on the street.
I’m particularly worried about people in this class such as academics and journalists whose work contributes significantly to social discourse. Without any meaningful interaction with others, the work-from-home class will treat the vulnerable groups they write about as simply objects of study. The isolation and disconnect will affect negatively on the research process, and we will increasingly see those in power seeking out narratives that confirm what they already think about the world.
Works cited
Berger, M., & Guidroz, K. (2014). Researching Sexuality: The Politics-of-Location Approach for Studying Sex Work. In Showden C. & Majic S. (Eds.), Negotiating Sex Work: Unintended Consequences of Policy and Activism (pp. 3-30). University of Minnesota Press.
