Inquisitive Injustice

The ability to control the direction of a conversation, which topics are raised, which questions are asked, and which lines of inquiry are followed, is a basic and powerful form of social control. This paper analyses this phenomenon in relation to a category of discursive injustice called ‘Inquisitive Injustice’. Inquisitive injustice concerns a speaker’s ability to make their questions the question under discussion in a conversation. The paper presents examples of this injustice, identifies the mechanisms by which it occurs, and several causal factors giving rise to its occurrence. In the process, it draws connections between the fields of social philosophy, formal pragmatics and critical discourse analysis.