Negotiation, Persuasion and the Power of Knowledge

Abstract

In Chapter 12 we argued that the extent to which actors are able to agree about the facts of the matter — that is, the extent to which they are able to align their networks — depends on the extent to which their interests are aligned. In the last two chapters we have presented examples where there was a complete failure to reach agreement. In each case we explained that failure by looking at the divergent interests of the audiences at which the knowledge was aimed. We found that these came to the debates with very different social prejudices, and sought to use the knowledge in question in very different ways. Hence the accusations of bias, cheating and improper practice; hence the attempts to undermine the legitimating natural accounts offered by the opposition and hence the attempts to sustain the account of nature being used to support the actor’s preferred social position.