Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Exploring Expertise: Issues and Perspectives

  • Chapter
Book cover Exploring Expertise

Abstract

We live in an age where the number and range of specialist fields of knowledge is burgeoning, and where ‘experts’ from these fields are called on to solve problems and advise in ever more areas of social and economic life. Time and again, however, our reliance on experts and expertise creates dilemmas which strike at the root of modern society — from the practice of democracy and political change to how companies decide on, and implement strategies for, economic growth. Accordingly, the subject of expertise is becoming a recognized ‘issue’ in a range of scholarly disciplines: not least, science and technology studies, including technology assessment and science and technology policy; gender studies, especially feminist critiques of science and medicine; organizational sociology and behaviour; management, especially strategic management, technology management, and human resource management; and in the various disciplines associated with the development of expert systems and artificial intelligence.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Bibliography

  • ANDERSEN, H. W. and SØRENSEN, K. H. Frankenstein’s Dilema: En Bok om Teknologi Miljø of Verdier (Oslo: Ad Notam Glydendal, 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  • ARDITTI, R., BRENNAN, P. and CAVRAK, S. Science and Liberation (Boston MA: South End Press, 1980).

    Google Scholar 

  • BARKER, A. and PETERS, B. G. (eds), The Politics of Expert Advice: Creating, Using and Manipulating Scientific Knowledge for Public Policy (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1993).

    Google Scholar 

  • BARNES, B. Scientific Knowledge and Sociological Theory (London and Boston MA: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974).

    Google Scholar 

  • BECK, U. Ecological Politics in an Age of Risk (Cambridge: Polity, 1995).

    Google Scholar 

  • BERNAL, J. D. The Social Function of Science (London: Routledge, 1939).

    Google Scholar 

  • BIJKER, W. ‘Do Not Despair: There is Life after Constructivism’, Science, Technology, & Human Values, 18: 4 (Winter 1993) pp. 113–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • BLEIER, R. Feminist Approaches to Science (New York: Pergamon Press, 1986).

    Google Scholar 

  • BLOOR, D. ‘Wittgenstein and Mannheim on the Sociology of Mathematics’ Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 4 (1973) pp. 173–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • BLOOR, D. Knowledge and Social Imagery (London and Boston MA, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1976).

    Google Scholar 

  • BRAVERMAN, H. Labor and Monopoly Capital (NY: Monthly Review Press, 1974).

    Google Scholar 

  • Brighton Women and Science Group, Alice Through the Microscope: The Power of Science over Women’s Lives (London: Virago, 1980).

    Google Scholar 

  • CARSON, R. Silent Spring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1962).

    Google Scholar 

  • COCKBURN, C. Brothers: Male Dominance and Technological Change (London: Pluto Press, 1983).

    Google Scholar 

  • CODE, L. What Can She Know? Feminist Theory and the Construction of Knowledge (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991).

    Google Scholar 

  • COHEN, D. and LEVINTHAL, W. ‘Innovation and Learning: The Two Faces of R&D’, Economic Journal, 99 (1989) pp. 569–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • COLLINGRIDGE, D. The Social Control of Technology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980).

    Google Scholar 

  • COLLINGRIDGE, D. and REEVE, C. Science Speaks to Power: The Role of Experts in Policymaking (London: Pinter, 1986).

    Google Scholar 

  • COLLINS, H. M. ‘Captives and Victims: Comment on Scott, Richards and Martin’, Science, Technology, & Human Values, 16: 2 (Spring 1991), pp. 249–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • COLLINS, H. M. and YEARLEY, S. ‘Journey into Space’ Chapter 13, pp. 369–81, in A. Pickering (ed.) Science as Practice and Culture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).

    Google Scholar 

  • COOMBS, R., SAVIOTTI, P. and WALSH, V. (eds), Technological Change and Company Strategies (London: Academic Press, 1992).

    Google Scholar 

  • CRESSEY, P. and McINNES, J. ‘Voting for Ford: Industrial Democracy and the Control of Labour’, Capital and Class, 11 (1980), pp. 5–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • CRONBERG, T. and SØRENSEN, K. (eds), Similar Concerns, Different Styles Technology Studies in Western Europe, Proceedings of the COST A4 workshop, Ruvaslahti, Finland 13–14 January 1994, volume 4 (Luxembourg: European Commission, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1995).

    Google Scholar 

  • DOSI, G. ‘Technological Paradigms and Technological Trajectories: A Suggested Interpretation of the Determinants and Direction of Technical Change’, Research Policy, 11 (1982) pp. 147–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • EASLEA, B. Liberation and the Aims of Science: An Essay on Obstacles to the Building of a Beautiful World (London: Chatto & Windus, 1973).

    Google Scholar 

  • ELSON, D. and PEARSON, R. ‘Nimble fingers make cheap workers’, Feminist Review, 7 (1981) pp. 87–107.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • FAULKNER, W. ‘Conceptualising Knowledge Used in Innovation: A Second Look at the Science-Technology Distinction and Industrial Innovation’, Science, Technology, & Human Values, 19: 4 (1994) pp. 425–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • FAULKNER, W. and KERR, E. A. ‘On Seeing Broken Spectres: Sex and Gender in Twentieth Century Science’, in J. Krige and D. Pestre (eds), Science in the Twentieth Century (Reading: Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, 1997) pp. 43–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • FINCHAM, R., FLECK, J., PROCTER, R., SCARBROUGH, H., TIERNEY, M. and WILLIAMS, R. Expertise and Innovation: Information Technology Strategies in the Financial Services Sector (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  • FISCHER, F. Technocracy and the Politics of Expertise (London, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1990).

    Google Scholar 

  • FRIEDMAN, A. L. Industry and Labour: Class Struggle at Work and Monopoly Capitalism (London: Macmillan, 1977).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • FUKUYAMA, F. The End of History and the Last Man (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1992).

    Google Scholar 

  • GILLESPIE, B., DAVE, E. and JONSTON, R. ‘Carcinogenic Risk Assessment in the USA & UK: The Case of Aldrin/Dieldrin’ in B. Barnes and D. Edge (eds), Science in Context (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1982) pp. 303–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • GROSS, P. R. and LEVITT, N. The Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and its Quarrels with Science (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  • HARDING, S. The Science Question in Feminism (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1986).

    Google Scholar 

  • HARAWAY, D. ‘Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective’, Feminist Studies, 14 (1988) pp. 575–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • HAMLIN, C. ‘Reflexivity in Technology Studies: Towards a Technology of Technology (and Science)?’, Social Studies of Science, 22: 3 (August 1992) pp. 511–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • HUBBARD, R., HENIFIN, S. and FRIED, B. (eds), Women Looking at Biology Looking at Women (Cambridge, MA: Schenkman, 1979).

    Google Scholar 

  • IRVINE, J. Foresight in Science: Picking the Winners (London: Frances Pinter, 1984).

    Google Scholar 

  • IRWIN, A. Citizen Science: A Study of People, Expertise and Sustainable Development (London: Routledge, 1995).

    Google Scholar 

  • IRWIN, A. and WYNNE, B. Misunderstanding Science: Making Sense of Science and Technology in Everyday Life (Cambridge University Press, 1995).

    Google Scholar 

  • JASANOFF, S. The Fifth Branch: Science Advisers as Policymakers (Cambridge MA, London: Harvard University Press, 1990).

    Google Scholar 

  • KERR, E. A. ‘Feminising Science: Linking Theory and Practice’ (unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • LAW, J. ‘The Anatomy of a Socio-Technical Struggle: The Design of the TSR 2’ in Ellistt, B. (ed) Technology and Social Process (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1988) pp. 44–69.

    Google Scholar 

  • LEWONTIN, R., LEVIN, R. and LEVIN, R. “The Problems of Lysenkoism” in H. Rose and S. Rose (eds), The Radicalisation of Science: Ideology of/in the Natural Sciences (London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1976) pp. 32–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • LONGINO, H. Science as Social Knowledge (Princeton University Press, 1989).

    Google Scholar 

  • LOWRANCE, W. W. Of Acceptable Risk: Science and the Determination of Safety (Los Altos, Calif: Kaufmann, 1976).

    Google Scholar 

  • MADEUF, B. ‘International technology transfers and international technology payments: Definitions, measurement and firms’ behaviour’, Research Policy, 13 (1984) pp. 125–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • METCALFE, J. S. and GIBBONS, M. ‘Technology, variety and organisation: a systematic perspective on the competitive process’ in Rosenbloom and Bergelman (eds) Research on Technological Innovation, Management and Policy, vol. 4 (JAI Press, 1989).

    Google Scholar 

  • MORGALL, J. M. Developing Technology Assessment: A Critical Feminist Approach (Lund: University of Lund Department of Sociology, 1991).

    Google Scholar 

  • MULKAY, M. ‘Knowledge and Utility: Implications for the Sociology of Knowledge’, Social Studies of Science, 9: 1 (February 1979) pp. 63–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • NELKIN, D. Technological Decisions and Democracy (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1977).

    Google Scholar 

  • NELKIN, D. (ed.), Controversy: Politics of Technical Decisions (Beverley Hills, London, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1979, 1984 2nd edn).

    Google Scholar 

  • NELSON, L. H. Who Knows: From Quine to Feminist Empiricism (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990).

    Google Scholar 

  • NELSON, R. and WINTER S. (1974) ‘Neoclassical vs Evolutionary Theories of Economic Growth’, Economic Journal, 84 pp. 886–905.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • PICKERING, A. (ed.) Science as Practice and Culture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).

    Google Scholar 

  • PINCH, T. and BIJKER, W ‘The Social Construction of Facts and Artefacts: Or How the Sociology of Science and the Sociology of Technology might Benefit Each other’, Social Studies of Science, 14: 3 (August 1984) 399–441.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • RADDER, H. ‘Normative Reflexions on Constructivist Approaches to Science and Technology’ Social Studies of Science, 22: 1 (February 1992) pp. 141–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • RAVETZ, J. R. Scientific Knowledge and its Social Problems (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971).

    Google Scholar 

  • RIP, A. MISA, T. J. and SCHOT, J. (eds), Managing Technology in Society: The Approach of Constructive Technology Assessment (London: Pinter, 1995).

    Google Scholar 

  • ROSE, H. Love, Power and Knowledge (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  • ROSE, H. and ROSE, S. The Radicalisation of Science: Ideology of/in the Natural Sciences (London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1976a).

    Google Scholar 

  • ROSE, H. and ROSE, S. The Political Economy of Science: Ideology of/in the Natural Sciences (London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1976b).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • ROSE, S. (1976)’ scientific Racism and Ideology: The IQ Racket from Galton to Jensen’ in Rose and Rose (1976) Chapter 7, pp. 112–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • ROSENBERG, N. Perspectives on Technology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • SCOTT, P., RICHARDS, E. and MARTIN, B. ‘Captives of Controversy: The Myth of the Neutral Social Researcher in Contemporary Scientific controversies’, Science, Technology, & Human Values, 15, 4 (Autumn 1990) pp. 474–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • SIMON, H. A. Models of Bounded Rationality (2 Vols.) (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1982).

    Google Scholar 

  • SISMONDO, S. ‘Some Social Constructions’, Social Studies of Science, 23: 3 (August 1993) pp. 515–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • SKYRME, D. J. and EARL, M. J. ‘Hybrid Managers: What should you do?’ Computer Bulletin, (May 1990) pp. 19–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • SØRENSEN, K. and LEVOLD, N. ‘Tacit Networks, Heterogeneous Engineers and Embodied Technology’, Science, Technology, & Human Values, 17: 1 (Winter 1992) pp. 13–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • TECHNOLOGY FORESIGHT STEERING GROUP, Progress through Partnership: The Report of the Technology Foresight Steering Group (London: Office of Science and Technology, 1995).

    Google Scholar 

  • THOMPSON, P. The Nature of Work: An Introduction to Debates on the Labour Process (London: Macmillan, 1983).

    Google Scholar 

  • VINCENTI, W. What Engineers Know and How They Know It: Analytical Studies From Aeronautical History (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1991).

    Google Scholar 

  • WEINBERG, S. Dreams of a Final Theory: The Search for the Fundamental Laws of Nature (New York: Pantheon, 1992).

    Google Scholar 

  • WILKINSON, B. The Shop Floor Politics of New Technology (London: Heinemann Educational, 1983).

    Google Scholar 

  • WILLIAMS, R. and EDGE, D. ‘The Social Shaping of Technology’, Research Policy, 25 (1996) pp. 865–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • WILLIAMSON, O. E. Markets and Hierarchies: Analysis and Antitrust Implications (New York: The Free Press, 1975).

    Google Scholar 

  • WINNER, L. ‘Upon Opening the Black Box and Finding It Empty: Social Constructivism and the Philosophy of Technology’, Science, Technology, & Human Values, 18: 3 (Summer 1993) pp. 362–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • WINTER, S. ‘Knowledge and Competence as Strategic Assets’ in D. Teece (ed.) The Competitive Challenge: Strategies for Industrial Innovation and Renewal (Cambridge Mass: Ballinger, 1987) pp. 159–83.

    Google Scholar 

  • WOLPERT, L. The Unnatural Nature of Science: Why Science Does Not Make (Common) Sense (London: Faber & Faber, 1992).

    Google Scholar 

  • WOOLGAR, S. ‘The Turn to Technology in Social Studies of Science’, Science, Technology, & Human Values, 16: 1 (Winter 1991) pp. 20–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • WYNNE, B. ‘Misunderstood Misunderstandings: Social Identities and Public Uptake of Knowledge’, Public Understanding of Science, 1 (1992) pp. 281–304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • YOUNG, R. M. ‘Science is Social Relations’, Radical Science Journal, 5 (1977) pp. 65–129.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Wendy Faulkner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. James Fleck
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Robin Williams
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Robin Williams Wendy Faulkner James Fleck

Copyright information

© 1998 Robin Williams, Wendy Faulkner and James Fleck

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Faulkner, W., Fleck, J., Williams, R. (1998). Exploring Expertise: Issues and Perspectives. In: Williams, R., Faulkner, W., Fleck, J. (eds) Exploring Expertise. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-13693-3_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation