Unjustly dismissing an alternative: a case of epistemic injustice among epistemic frameworks

Abstract

The concept of epistemic injustice has become a useful tool for understanding some of the wrongs and harms that result from the interplay of identity and knowledge. However, this paper proposes that analysis of epistemic injustice needs to consider not only the level of individual or institutional epistemic transactions, but also the level of epistemic frameworks. Drawing on Gaile Pohlhaus Jr. and Rajeev Bhargava, I examine the Cuban health care system and the epistemic framework it is based on as a case study of how prejudice that leads to the dismissal, discrediting and marginalization of such an epistemic framework can be an epistemic injustice.