Between Knowing and Not-Knowing: Towards a Sociology for the Future of Health Care

What if not-knowing is not always a weakness in health care? We often associate good healthcare with knowledge, evidence and professional expertise—and rightly so. But what happens when the evidence is incomplete, experiences do not fit established categories, or patients and professionals understand the same situation differently? In my article, “Between Knowing and Not-Knowing: Towards a Sociology for the Future of Health Care,” I explore a different way of thinking about uncertainty. I argue that acknowledging the limits of what we know can create space for listening, humility, reflexivity, lived experience and shared understanding. Drawing particularly on refugee and migrant health, the paper considers whose knowledge is recognised, whose voices may remain unheard, and how power shapes what counts as legitimate knowledge in healthcare. This is not an argument against evidence-based practice. It is an invitation to think more broadly about knowledge itself—and about how scientific evidence, professional expertise, cultural understanding and lived experience can inform one another. Perhaps the future of healthcare depends not only on knowing more, but also on becoming better at recognising what we do not yet know—and listening to those who may know differently. I hope this paper encourages discussion among nurses, healthcare professionals, sociologists, researchers, policymakers and people with lived experience. What might change in healthcare if saying “I don't yet know—help me understand” were recognised as a strength rather than a weakness?