Taking ‘nonsense’ seriously: Hoaxes, spoofs, and the epistemic cultures of geography

Abstract

The ‘Grievance Studies Affair’, a deceptive publishing project launched in 2017, offers a revealing lens through which to see beyond simplifying polarizations and establish more constructive relations among geography's wide range of ‘epistemic cultures’. This article places the Grievance Studies Affair in the context of other hoaxes and spoofs and draws upon speech act theory to pin down how such deceptive publications are supposed to work. The core of the argument concerns the epistemological interpretation of instances where writings purported by their authors to be ‘nonsense’ have nevertheless been seen by other scholars – even when it is clear that a hoax or spoof was intended – as sense-bearing, valuable, or potentially fruitful. These instances shed fresh light on two epistemological issues: the role of authorial intention in academic arguments, and how much we really need to know about other epistemic cultures to form serious judgments about them. Attending to these points can enhance the possibility of respectful and constructive conversations between epistemic cultures in geography.