Pioneering and comprehensive collection Critical and highly emancipatory explorations and insights Prominent figures and emergent scholars on failure Interdisciplinary coverage Guide to future direction of research and activism

Ignorance and Change analyses the European refugee crisis of 2015-2016 from the perspective of ignorance studies showing how the media, decision-makers and academics engaged in the projection and reification of the future in relation to the crisis, the asylum system, and the solutions that were proposed. Why do recent crises fail to bring meaningful change? Why do we often see replication of the regimes of ignorance, inefficient knowledge and expertise practices? This book answers these questions by shifting the focus from the issue of change to our projections and expectations of what change will look like. Building on three comprehensive case studies, Poland, Hungary, and Romania, it demonstrates how ignorance and projectivity were essential for new Member States not only for managing the crisis but also for reaching a higher level of autonomy in relation to the EU. Employing an innovative interactional approach to ignorance, it bridges ignorance studies with sociology of future and migration research. Challenging the dominant interest in defining ignorance, it moves the focus from what ignorance is to what ignorance does. It incorporates the concept of future into ignorance studies and develops notions such as "projective agency," "reification of the future," "projection by proxy," and "projectors of EU asylum policies." The book provides an erudite background, comprehensive empirical research, and original tools of analysis for graduate students, researchers, and policy makers interested in crisis studies, public policy, ignorance studies, social theory, migration studies, and sociology of the future.

Ignorance and Change analyses the European refugee crisis of 2015-2016 from the perspective of ignorance studies showing how the media, decision-makers and academics engaged in the projection and reification of the future in relation to the crisis, the asylum system, and the solutions that were proposed. Why do recent crises fail to bring meaningful change? Why do we often see replication of the regimes of ignorance, inefficient knowledge and expertise practices? This book answers these questions by shifting the focus from the issue of change to our projections and expectations of what change will look like. Building on three comprehensive case studies, Poland, Hungary, and Romania, it demonstrates how ignorance and projectivity were essential for new Member States not only for managing the crisis but also for reaching a higher level of autonomy in relation to the EU. Employing an innovative interactional approach to ignorance, it bridges ignorance studies with sociology of future and migration research. Challenging the dominant interest in defining ignorance, it moves the focus from what ignorance is to what ignorance does. It incorporates the concept of future into ignorance studies and develops notions such as "projective agency," "reification of the future," "projection by proxy," and "projectors of EU asylum policies." The book provides an erudite background, comprehensive empirical research, and original tools of analysis for graduate students, researchers, and policy makers interested in crisis studies, public policy, ignorance studies, social theory, migration studies, and sociology of the future.

The European Capital of Culture is one of the European Union's most important cultural programmes, its significance transcending a narrow understanding of the cultural sphere. The scheme has been one of the foremost mechanisms contributing to the urban revival of European cities and increasingly close integration in many areas of social and cultural activity. The ECOC 2016 competition (2007-2011), entered by 11 Polish cities, took place in an exceptionally favourable context. The ECOC 2016 competition in Poland served as an impetus for many changes to take place in the participant cities. These particularly applied to the sociocultural sphere, encompassing such issues as a city's identity and social capital. Consequently, it became possible to create new urban narratives which also contributed to changes regarding the cities' images. In some cases, this could even be described as a real revolution which was able to take place as a result of unprecedented social mobilisation.