From agnosis to accidental activism: Infinite regress and the Post Office Scandal

Abstract

This paper explores the lived experiences of victims/survivors affected by the UK Post Office Scandal, drawing on 28 in-depth interviews and critical legal analysis. It uses the concept of ‘accidental activism’ to explore how victims, initially isolated and disempowered, became central agents of justice reform. The authors examine how institutional agnosis and legality illusions—mechanisms of ignorance-making and legal manipulation—enabled systemic harm and prolonged injustice. Despite legal victories such as the Bates litigation and the Horizon IT Inquiry, the paper highlights the cyclical nature of legal processes and logics reasserting the system-norms the victims/survivors are resisting. This is experienced as an ‘infinite’ regress of revictimisation. In mapping the transformation of personal trauma into collective resistance, we see how survivor-led activism can challenge state-corporate power and foster broader structural change but also how the system will work to protect itself.