Rethinking Expertise

摘要

By parsing the difference between "talking the talk" and "walking the walk"-in their terms, between "interactional" and "contributory" expertise-Harry Collins and Robert Evans aim "to help us make decisions about who counts as an expert and who does not in ... technological disputes in the public domain" (p. 133). Collins here steps away from his formidable and formative presence as a relativist in the sociology of scientific knowledge in search of firm and defensible boundaries between those who possess trustworthy expertise amid the daunting uncertainties of public policy decision-making and those whose inexpert input will only deepen the mire. He and Evans advance into this liminal territory through a multistaged assault, progressing through excising logical extensions in the manner of philosophers, eschewing the inconvenient but potentially germane complexities posited by those who linger amid the thorny thickets of case studies.