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The ideology that formal systems—rules, procedures, mathematics, logic—are inherently superior to informal, contextual, or embodied ways of knowing. Formal ideology equates “formal” with “rigorous,” “objective,” and “trustworthy,” while dismissing non‑formal knowledge as fuzzy, subjective, or primitive. It is closely tied to Western scientific ideology and the belief that formalisation is the hallmark of maturity in any discipline. Formal ideology justifies the dominance of experts who master forms, the exclusion of oral or experiential knowledge, and the transformation of every domain into a set of measurable, quantifiable rules. It is the ideology of bureaucracy, credentialism, and technocracy.
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