Ignorance and Change analyses the European refugee crisis of 2015–2016 from the
perspective of ignorance studies showing how the media, decision-makers and academics
engaged in the projection and reification of the future in relation to the crisis, the asylum
system, and the solutions that were proposed. Why do recent crises fail to bring meaningful
change? Why do we often see replication of the regimes of ignorance, inefficient knowledge
and expertise practices? This book answers these questions by shifting the focus from the …

The year 2015 saw an unprecedented influx of third-country nationals to the European
Union (EU), giving rise to deep ideological divides between member states. The con-
tradictory approaches towards the migratory movement were the result of sharp differences
concerning the labelling of the phenomenon. While decision-makers in some EU countries
perceived it as a refugee crisis, others framed it as an ordinary migratory event involving
mainly economic migrants who were not in peril-they were not fleeing persecution and war …