Title: Rethinking expertise /
Authors: Collins, H. M. 1943-; Evans, Robert, 1968-
Publisher: University of Chicago Press,
Year: 2007
Subjects: Knowledge, Sociology of; Expertise; Science Social aspects; Professional Competence
Abstract: "What does it mean to be an expert? Traditionally, expertise has been associated with authoritative knowledge, honed by practice and certified by powerful institutions. Scientists, of course, are often presumed to be the ultimate experts, but it is exactly in this area that the importance of defining what it means to be an expert is paramount. In Rethinking Expertise, Harry Collins and Robert Evans offer a radical new perspective on the role of expertise in the practice of science and the public evaluation of technology." "Collins and Evans present the problem of expertise in the context of modern society and go on to offer a Periodic Table of Expertises based on the idea of tacit knowledge - in other words, knowledge that we have but cannot explain. They then explore how some expertises are used to judge others, how we judge between experts even when we are not experts ourselves, and how credentials are used to judge experts. A central new concept in the book and, the authors argue, in society, is interactional expertise - a proficiency in the language of a specialism if not in its practices. Here, they describe experiments in which people with interactional expertise showed themselves to be indistinguishable from full-fledged experts in imitation games." "Throughout, Collins and Evans ask an important question: how can the public make use of science and technology before there is consensus in the scientific community? This is a quandary that has wide implications for public policy and for those who seek to understand and benefit from science. The authors offer a balanced assessment of the main issues and propose a new understanding of how to extend public participation in technical decision-making without abandoning the idea of expertise as real, useful, and necessary.".
Contents: Introduction: Why expertise? -- The periodic table of expertises 1 : ubiquitous and specialist expertises -- The periodic table of expertises 2 : meta-expertises and meta-criteria -- Interactional expertise and embodiment -- Walking the talk: experiments on color blindness, perfect pitch, and gravitational waves -- New demarcation criteria -- Conclusion: science, the citizen, and the role of social science -- Appendix: waves of science studies.