Notes of IASIS on Expertise, 2nd December 2010
Notes of IASIS on Expertise held on 2nd December 2010
Questions posed
EXPERTISE
· What is it?
· How do we prove it?
· Do we have to be experts?
· How does the evidence for this differ between the disciplines?
· What does it mean to our status as academics and scientists?
Expertise = specialist knowledge?
But ‘specialist’ is less rhetorical and power-laden than ‘expert’?
Inaccessibility – Patricia’s interpretation of Gregor’s distance
In my field, expert is probably less valuable than being the ‘go to’ person
Expertise as method/methodology – is it ever just that? (Helen L)
Conceptual expertise
‘Expert’ = individual but networks are the real locus! (Marta)
We are envious of experts (Kathy, Patricia, Elliot). Are experts’ excellent?
‘Discipline envy’
Non-scientists can see scientists as people with ‘facts’, ‘certainty’ and ‘expertise’.
Scientists can see non-scientists as better with words, better with people, better with politics and better with nuances.
Can you have an expert who crosses disciplines?
‘Lay expertise’. Academics not being allowed to be ‘lay’. Lay = unreverentialized
Do you need to have studied a lot to be an expert? No, because expertise can be acquired through experience.
Is expertise a commodity/about having something that others want?
Expertise in technical skills – yes
In ‘thinking’ through an argument – ?
If expertise is ascribed, what is in it for the ascribers?
Poll today!
1) Are you an expert?
Yes Somewhat No
30% 10% 60%
(all scientists & engineers)
2) Are you a specialist?
Yes Somewhat No
70% 10% 20%
Explanation of results: more certainty and confidence in numbers and quantitative data.
Signified by…? Clothes? Gesture? Gender? Spatial position? Age?
Is expertise in the eye of the beholder? (Lindsey)
Expertise sounds intrinsic and absolute but it is contextually relative. (Think of a mathematician talking to: a) fellow maths people, b) social scientists, and c) grandmother – Bernd)
Expertise and authority. Is expertise what gives authority? Is an ‘authority’ more attractive as a self-image than an ‘expert’? (Gregor seems to think so – when prompted by Bernd and disowning both expertise and specialist) But authority is more power-laden and ambivalent than expert!
Can you be an expert in generality? (Ian)
What is the etymology of expert? ‘Experience’? Accurate reportage on experience? (Fernando)
Particularity – particulars can be nailed down by me.
Horizontal vs vertical dimensions. Accessing general principles (vertical), accessing particular principles (horizontal)
Theoretical (general principles)
Red triangle = relativity theorist
Green circle = gardener
(role model: ‘chance’ Peter Sellers)
Ascribed not achieved – dictated by society?
Humour dimension: the expert is sober, reliable, enviable until s/he becomes a boffin = absurd, laughable (what is a nerd?)
Until the C17th, an expert was an expert in everything (Renaissance man!). Today’s “experts” are more compartmentalized (an expert physicist is unlikely to be an expert historian), therefore expertise is a product/condition of modernity?
The body angle. Expertise inconceivable except through mind/body motif. Embodying expertise: surely a gendered thing (Helen, Kathy).
True experts = magicians (Bernd)
Expertise is… a job, funding and a mandate (Lindsey)
Expertise may be as much about forms of ‘social discrimination’ (e.g. discerning which kinds of information are informed by economic interests) as about “technical” (discipline/domain specific) knowledge)
Scientific evidence and quantitative evidence can be treated as ‘superior’ and researchers even venturing into more “ambiguous” (nuanced) territory (like alternative therapies) can be looked down on/discouraged/not funded
It seems that in the Sciences (Maths, Physics and the like), someone exceptionally young is more easily accepted as an expert than someone in the Arts – ‘it’ comes with age in Arts, but in science ‘it’ can be a fluke (or is it intelligence?)
Can be a fluke in the Arts too! Importance of patronage – that is the thing in science too.
Expertise – culturally specific to western culture?
Expertise implies duties. Or opportunity to exploit?
Does this difference matter in the end? Don’t the ‘real’ experts excel in any culture/discipline/age related (etc.) situation? And be recognized as such despite everything!
Every group will produce its experts even if no one is truly outstanding (Ian)
Every group will produce its experts because relatively some-one will stand out (Hinke)
Expertise as a relative concept: email – it used to be an expertise to send email. Now, you’re a weirdo if you can’t! Therefore, expertise is something exceptional relative to the masses.
Action: Gregor, Helen, Patricia meet
· Helen workshop
· Patricia workshop
· Harry Collins – experts as mediational
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