Introduction to
Studies of Expertise and Experience
Robert Evans
SEESHOP 8
Waterloo, 8-12 June 2014
Third Wave of Science Studies (2002)
• Problem of Legitimacy
▫ Over reliance on core-set
scientists
• Problem of Extension
▫ Over reliance on lay publics as
‘experts’
• Third Wave
▫ Distinction between experts
and non-experts
▫ Distinction between technical
and political phases
Rethinking Expertise (2007)
UBIQUITOUS EXPERTISES
Interactive Ability
Reflective Ability
DISPOSITIONS
SPECIALIST
EXPERTISES
UBIQUITOUS
TACIT KNOWLEDGE
Beer-mat
Popular
Primary
Knowledge Understanding
Source
Knowledge
SPECIALIST
TACIT KNOWLEDGE
Interactional
Contributory
Expertise
Expertise
Polimorphic
METAEXPERTISES
METACRITERIA
EXTERNAL
Ubiquitous
Local
Discrimination Discrimination
Credentials
Mimeomorphic
INTERNAL
Technical
Downward
Connoisseurship Discrimination
Experience
Referred
Expertise
Track-Record
Rethinking Expertise (2007)
UBIQUITOUS EXPERTISES
Interactive Ability
Reflective Ability
DISPOSITIONS
SPECIALIST
EXPERTISES
UBIQUITOUS
TACIT KNOWLEDGE
Beer-mat
Popular
Primary
Knowledge Understanding
Source
Knowledge
SPECIALIST
TACIT KNOWLEDGE
Interactional
Contributory
Expertise
Expertise
Polimorphic
METAEXPERTISES
METACRITERIA
EXTERNAL
Ubiquitous
Local
Discrimination Discrimination
Credentials
Mimeomorphic
INTERNAL
Technical
Downward
Connoisseurship Discrimination
Experience
Referred
Expertise
Track-Record
Socialisation
Barrier
Specialist Expertise
Explicit
Knowledge
Ubiquitous Tacit
Knowledge
Interactional
Contributory
Expertise
Expertise
Specialist Tacit
Knowledge
Language and Practice (2011)
Cultural knowledge shared
more or less uniformly
amongst all members of the
target culture
Relatively small sample can
‘represent’ the collective stock
of cultural knowledge
Quantifying the Tacit (2013/14)
In the Turing Test, the judge must
decide which is the computer and
which is the human.
In the Imitation Game, the judge
must decide which participant
shares their social group.
The Imitation Game
R1
‘once a week’
R2
‘not very often, when
they need doing’
Male pretending to be
female
Female judge setting
questions
R2 is female ‘because I expected the
often do
you pluck
manHow
to believe
women
are more
your
eyebrows?
regulated in
their
beauty regime than
they actually are
Female answering
naturally
Initial Results
IMITATING RELIGIOUS UNDERSTANDING
IN: Palermo, Wroclaw, Budapest+Pesc, Cardiff(2011), Helsinki, Trondheim, Rotterdam
100%
10%
80%
30%
22%
Pass- 60%
Rate
9%
40%
33%
20%
0%
Pal
Wroc
Bud+P C’diff11 Hels
Trond
Rott
39%
IMGAME is ‘work in progress’
• Methodological questions
▫ How accurate is probe model in practice – can
individuals or small groups really represent the target
▫ How to know if the assumed target culture exists at all
• STS in practice
▫ How to know when you have measured Pass Rate
correctly
• How to interpret results
▫ High pass rate indicates knowledgeable Pretenders
▫ High pass rate indicates Non-Pretenders and Judges
share little specialist knowledge.
Elective Modernism (under review)
Value scientific values not scientific facts
Science
values
Democracy
values
Policy
Elective Modernism (20??)
Science
values
Democracy
values
Policy
Minimal Default Position
• Politicians can accept or reject scientific or other
advice when making policy decisions
• Politicians must not miss-represent expert
knowledge when justifying these decisions
BUT…
• How can politicians and the public know the
‘true’ state of consensus in a technical domain?
The Birds…
Eagles
Owls
• Scientists (including
social scientists) and
other technical experts
• Eagles are efficient
hunters who tend to
look in one direction
• Eagles see their only
their science and reject
other views
• Reflexive scientists and
STS informed social
scientists
• Owls are not only wise,
they can look in two
different directions
• Owls see both science
and social analysis of
that science
What the Owls Add to Policy Advice
• Analysis of scientific and experience-based
expertise relating to the topic
▫ Understanding of scientific culture and practice as
rooted in tacit knowledge
▫ Recognition that maverick science continues long
after the mainstream has moved on
• A public statement summarising the degree of
expert consensus about the topic in question
▫ Summary of the substance/content of consensus
▫ Summary of how strong this consensus is
Summary
• SEE has an abundance of theories and concepts
▫ Technical and Political Phases
▫ Periodic Table of Expertises
• Investigating Expertise and Experience
▫ Imitation Game and Interactional Expertise
• Institutions for Expertise and Democracy
▫ Elective Modernism and Value of Scientific Values
References
• Expertise
▫
▫
▫
Collins, H M and Evans, R J (2002) ‘The Third Wave of Science Studies: Studies of Expertise
and Experience’, Social Studies of Sciences, 32 (2): 235-96.
<http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0306312702032002003>
Collins, H M and Evans, R J (2007) Rethinking Expertise, Chicago, IL: The University of
Chicago Press.
Collins, H.M. (2011) ‘Language and Practice), Social Studies of Science, Vol 41, No. 2, pp. 271300. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0306312711399665
• Imitation Game
▫
▫
▫
Collins, H.M. Evans, Robert, Ribeiro, Rodrigo and Hall, Martin (2006), ‘Experiments with
Interactional Expertise, Studies In History and Philosophy of Science, Volume 37, No. 4 (Dec
2006), pp. 656-674. < http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2006.09.005>
Evans, Robert and Crocker, Helen (2013) The Imitation Game as a Method for Exploring
Knowledge(s) of Chronic Illness, Methodological Innovations Online, Vol. 7 (2) [Published
online as http://www.methodologicalinnovations.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/4.Evans-et-al.pdf]
Collins, H.M. and Evans, R.J. (2014) ‘Quantifying the Tacit: The Imitation Game and Social
Fluency’, Sociology, Vol. 48, No. 1, pp. 3-19 [Originally published as Online First on 25 Feb
2013 as doi: 10.1177/0038038512455735]
• Elective Modernism
▫
▫
Collins, H.M. (2010) Elective Modernism (working paper)
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/socsi/contactsandpeople/harrycollins/expertiseproject/elective%20modernism%204.doc
Collins, H.M., Weinel, M. and Evans, R.J. (2010) ‘The Politics and Policy of the Third Wave:
New Technologies and Society’, Critical Policy Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 185-201.
<http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19460171.2010.490642>