City Research Online

Abstract

How do actors overlook uncomfortable information? We add to the understanding of how potential problems can be ignored over long periods, in spite of recurrent warnings. Ignoring then becomes a dynamic process of responding to evolving ignoring ‘threats’ or triggers by combining knowledge-seeking and knowledge avoidance in ways that must be continuously legitimated, both in one’s own eyes and in those of relevant parts of the environment. Drawing on a longitudinal case study, we find that ambiguity-juggling – mutually supporting acts foregrounding and backgrounding ambiguity – constitute a key element of such ignoring work. Our study adds to the literatures on strategic or wilful ignorance and ambiguity management by providing a novel explanation for how actors dynamically mobilize motives for ignoring and thereby navigate uncomfortable information that evolves over time. As we show, sustained forms of ignoring involve interactions between shifting ignoring triggers, adaptive ignoring work and evolving states of organized ignorance. This conceptualization contributes to the ignoring literature by extending current accounts of the ‘why’, ‘how’, ‘how much’ and ‘who’ of ignoring, as well as its outcomes.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© The Author(s) 2026. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Publisher Keywords:	Ambiguity management, longitudinal qualitative, misconduct, silence, strategic ignorance, sustained ignoring work, uncomfortable information, whistleblowing, wilful ignorance
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine
Departments:	Bayes Business School Bayes Business School > Faculty of Management
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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