Introduction toStudies of Expertise and Experience Robert Evans

SEESHOP 8Waterloo, 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

UBIQUITOUS EXPERTISES DISPOSITIONS Interactive Ability

Reflective Ability SPECIALIST UBIQUITOUS

TACIT KNOWLEDGE SPECIALIST

TACIT KNOWLEDGE

EXPERTISES Beer-mat

Knowledge Popular

Understanding Primary Source

Knowledge

Interactional Expertise

Contributory Expertise

Polimorphic Mimeomorphic

META- EXTERNAL INTERNAL

EXPERTISES Ubiquitous

Discrimination Local

Discrimination Technical

Connoisseurship Downward

Discrimination Referred Expertise

META-

CRITERIA

Credentials

Experience

Track-Record

Rethinking Expertise (2007)

UBIQUITOUS EXPERTISES DISPOSITIONS Interactive Ability

Reflective Ability SPECIALIST UBIQUITOUS

TACIT KNOWLEDGE SPECIALIST

TACIT KNOWLEDGE

EXPERTISES Beer-mat

Knowledge Popular

Understanding Primary Source

Knowledge

Interactional Expertise

Contributory Expertise

Polimorphic Mimeomorphic

META- EXTERNAL INTERNAL

EXPERTISES Ubiquitous

Discrimination Local

Discrimination Technical

Connoisseurship Downward

Discrimination Referred Expertise

META-

CRITERIA

Credentials

Experience

Track-Record

Rethinking Expertise (2007)

Specialist Expertise

Contributory Expertise

Interactional Expertise

Explicit Knowledge

Specialist Tacit Knowledge

Ubiquitous Tacit Knowledge

Soci

alis

atio

n B

arri

er

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

Female judge setting questions

Female answering naturally

Male pretending to be female

How often do you pluck your eyebrows?

R2‘not very often, when

they need doing’R1

‘once a week’

R2 is female ‘because I expected the man to believe women are more regulated in their beauty regime than they actually are

IMITATING RELIGIOUS UNDERSTANDING

IN: Palermo, Wroclaw, Budapest+Pesc, Cardiff(2011), Helsinki, Trondheim, Rotterdam

Pass- Rate

10%

22%

9%

Pal Wroc Bud+P C’diff11 Hels Trond Rott

30%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

33% 39%

Initial Results

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)

Science values

Democracy values

Policy

Value scientific values not scientific facts

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

• 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

Owls

• 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. 271-300. 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/expertise-project/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>