Ignorancia, conocimiento y poder. El corte de la madera, el tráfico ilegal y las políticas forestales en México

Abstract

Academic and popular stereotypes of the state have assumed that official power and knowledge go hand in hand. In an institutional ethnography of the Mexican environment agency, Semarnap, the author show that ignorance and complicity may be as important as knowledge in asserting state power. Official ignorance of illegal firewood cutting and logging is deployed both within and outside state forestry institutions. Official knowledge and ignorance justify state power and are entrenched by the daily practices of bureaucrats. A closer attention to the production and translation of knowledge within state institutions leads to a more nuanced understanding of various forms of obscurity and ignorance which accompany official knowledge claims.