The Oxford Handbook of Expertise and Democratic Politics (OXFORD HANDBOOKS SERIES)

In the last several decades, there has been a surge of interest in expertise in the social scientific, philosophical, and legal literatures. While it is tempting to attribute this surge of interest in expertise to the emergence and consolidation of a "knowledge society," "post-industrial society," or "network society," it is more likely that the debates about expertise are symptomatic of significant change and upheaval. As the number of contenders for expert status has increased, as the bases for their claims have become more diverse, and as the struggles between these would-be experts intensified, expertise became problematic and contested. In The Oxford Handbook of Expertise and Democratic Politics, Gil Eyal and Thomas Medvetz have brought together a broad group of scholars who have engaged substantively and theoretically with debates regarding the nature of expertise and the social roles of experts to examine these areas within sociology and allied disciplines. The analyses take an historical and relational approach to the topic and are motivated by the sense that growing mistrust in experts represents a danger to democratic politics today. The chapters will be organized into three general parts: key theoretical and historical debates, the politics of expertise, and expertise within and across professional, disciplinary, legal, and intellectual spheres. Among the topics considered here are the value and relevance of the boundary between experts and laypeople; the causes and consequences of mistrust in experts; the meanings and social uses of objectivity; and the significance of recent transformations in the organization of the professions. Bringing together investigations from social scientists, philosophers, and legal scholars into the political dimensions of expertise, this Handbook connects interdisciplinary work done in science and technology studies with the more classic concerns, topics, and concepts of sociologists of professions and intellectuals. Cover Half-title Expertise and Democratic Politics Copyright Contents Contributors 1. Introduction Part I. The Fraught Relations between Expertise and Democracy 2. Trust and Distrust of Scientific Experts and the Challenges of the Democratization of Science 3. The Third Wave and Populism: Scientific Expertise as a Check and Balance 4. The Meaning and Significance of Lay Expertise 5. On the Multiplicity of Lay Expertise: An Empirical and Analytical Overview of Patient Associations’ Achievements and Challenges 6. The Political Climate and Climate Politics—​Expert Knowledge and Democracy Part II. Trust 7. Mistrust of Experts by Populists and Politicians 8. A Regulatory State of Exception Part III. Objectivity 9. Experts in Law 10. Institutions of Expert Judgment: The Production and Use of Objectivity in Public Expertise 11. Expertise and Complex Organizations 12. Data and Expertise: Some Unanticipated Outcomes 13. Experts in the Regulation of Technology and Risk: An Ecological Perspective on Regulatory Science 14. Expert Power and the Classification of Human Difference Part IV. Jurisdictional Struggles 15. Battle of the Experts: The Strange Career of Meta-​Expertise 16. Gender and Economic Governance Expertise 17. Field Theory and Expertise: Analytical Approaches and the Question of Autonomy Part V. Making the Future Present 18. Addressing the Risk Paradox: Exploring the Demand Requirements around Risk and Uncertainty and the Supply Side Limitations of Calculative Practices 19. Expertise and the State: From Planning to Future Research Part VI. The Transformation and Persistence of Professions 20. Professional Authority 21. The Postindustrial Limits of Professionalization 22. (In)expertise and the Paradox of Therapeutic Governance Part VII. New Media and Expertise 23. The Social Distribution of the Public Recognition of Expertise 24. Media Metacommentary, Mediatization, and the Instability of Expertise Index "This volume brings together investigations from social scientists, philosophers, and legal scholars into the political dimensions of expertise. It is motivated by the sense that growing mistrust in experts represents a danger to democratic politics today, insofar as science and experts are integral to the checks and balances on which liberal democracies depend for their health and functioning. At the same time, the contributions to this handbook recognize that some of the processes that undermine expert authority, including the diversification and socialization of expertise, have had the salutary effect of democratizing expertise. This tension-between the erosion of democracy and the democratization of expertise-animates the present volume, which explores current debates and new directions in the field. Among the topics considered here are the value and relevance of the boundary between experts and laypeople; the causes and consequences of mistrust in experts; the meanings and social uses of objectivity; and the significance of recent transformations in the organization of the professions"-- Provided by publisher