Geoscience Reference
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The power of lay epistemology
In their germinal book Rethinking expertise , the British science analysts Harry
Collins and Robert Evans have used cases similar to the Pickering one in
order to pinpoint when and how citizen science is relevant (Collins and
Evans, 2007). Their objective has been (1) to move past the science-citizen
dichotomy that so often holds people at a distance from scientific practice,
while (2) nonetheless insisting that it's not always appropriate to involve
citizens 'mid-stream' (i.e. in the actual 'doing' of research). They usefully
disaggregate the concept of 'expert' and identify three kinds of expert who
can, in context-dependent ways, interact to shape the conduct and outcome
of scientific research:
1. Contributory expertise. This refers to people whose knowledge and
experience allow them to make claims about some aspect of the world
that others might consider to be credible. Importantly, Collins and
Evans consider contributory expertise to extend beyond any 'core set'
of credentialised epistemic workers. One need not, for instance, have
done doctoral research to contribute substantively to the understanding
of a particular problem, event or phenomenon of interest to creden-
tialised scientists. For Collins and Evans, we should consider contrib-
utory expertise to be possessed by some lay actors, depending on the
situation.
2. Interactional expertise. This refers to people who, while not contrib-
utory experts, have enough understanding of what they do to interact
meaningfully with them. Collins and Evans make an instructive com-
parison here with art critics and artists: experienced critics possess
interactional expertise, even if they may lack the skills to create great art
themselves.
3. Referred expertise. This refers to people who may possess contributory or
interactional expertise in a specialist area, but who lack it in other areas
in which they may have a professional or personal interest. Nonethe-
less, their understanding of what it is to possess expertise may help
them appreciate its nature and use in these other areas. Equally, though,
referred expertise does not qualify one to pronounce with confidence
on research by communities of contributory or interactional experts to
which one does not belong.
Quite who determines which experts fall into which categories in any
given situation is not discussed by Collins and Evans. It would, presum-
ably, be a process of negotiation. Regardless, in light of their triad, try to
categorise the various knowledge makers involved in the Pickering case by
completing the study task below.
 
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