A sardonic label for the academic meta-enterprise of endlessly theorizing about knowledge itself. It points to the potential for scholarship in philosophy and social studies of science to become a self-referential, jargon-laden system focused more on internal debates, career-building, and generating complex theories than on clarifying how we know things in the practical world.
*Example: Writing a 400-page treatise deploying Epistemology Industry jargon to deconstruct the "socio-technical imaginaries of evidence-production" in a field you've never actually worked in, all to secure tenure, while a farmer's practical, life-saving knowledge of climate patterns is ignored because it wasn't produced within the industry.*
by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 6, 2026
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