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expropriation-of-knowledge

The process by which knowledge about nature and health is taken from direct experience and controlled by experts and institutions, distancing people from participation.

1 chapter across 1 book

Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television (1978)Jerry Mander

Chapter 9

This chapter critiques the modern expropriation of knowledge by scientific and technological elites, arguing that direct experiential knowledge has been displaced by abstract, expert-driven understanding. It highlights how indigenous and pretechnological peoples possess intimate, practical knowledge of nature and healing, which modern science often appropriates without acknowledgment or reciprocity. The chapter calls for recognition of the limitations of techno-scientific knowledge and the importance of reconnecting with natural, experiential ways of knowing.