The Oxford Handbook of Expertise and Democratic Politics

Erscheinungsjahr 2023
ISBN: 978-0-19-084892-7
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 592 Seiten, Format (B × H): 177 mm x 257 mm, Gewicht: 1079 g

Reihe: 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. 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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Eyal, Gil

Medvetz, Thomas

Weitere Mitwirkende

Eyal, Gil

Medvetz, Thomas

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Gesellschaftstheorie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Wirtschaftssoziologie, Arbeitssoziologie, Organisationssoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Sozialisation, Soziale Interaktion, Sozialer Wandel

Über Autor(innen)

Gil Eyal is Professor of Sociology at Columbia University. His research focuses on various types of expertise, as well as the sociological theory of expertise, lay expertise and the politics of expertise. He is the author of The Crisis of Expertise (2019), The Autism Matrix (2010) and The Disenchantment of the Orient (2006). He has also published various articles on intellectuals, experts, and expertise in Theory and
Society, BioSocieties, the Annual Review of Sociology, Sociological Theory, and the American Journal of Sociology.

Thomas Medvetz is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego. His research focuses on the political role of experts, professionals, and intellectuals in modern societies. He is the author of Think Tanks in America (2012), a book based on his study of the history and impact of think tanks in the United States. He has also written or co-written academic articles about public intellectualism

and the contemporary American conservative movement. His work has appeared in journals such as Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales, the Annual Review of Sociology, Politics & Society, Public Culture, and Qualitative Sociology.