Privatized fast-knowledge production legitimizes Islamophobic policies

Evidence

Hamid Dabashi notes how what he calls “interested knowledge” is now produced away from academia by bodies such as think tanks. Information is tailored to the demands of those who commission it, resulting in a sort of privatization of knowledge leading to a short-term, disposable product: “fast-knowledge produced on the model of fast food.” … When it comes to Islamophobia, populist modes of knowledge production and opinion formation allow open season on Muslims to be declared. The justification of torture, belief in conspiracies, institutionalized racism, Islamophobic policies, and scapegoating all become “respectable.” — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 521

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘interested knowledge’ and ‘fast-knowledge’ as Dabashi’s terms for commissioned, disposable information that bypasses academic standards.
• XREF: Relevant context for reading Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, whose protagonist works in ‘valuation’ — a knowledge-economy exercise that privates judgment.