Sociology, Expertise and Civility
In: Stephen Turner and the Philosophy of the SocialSearch for other papers by John Holmwood in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Abstract
This chapter discusses Stephen Turner’s contribution to the role of expertise in liberal democracy. It addresses the shift from expertise understood as certain knowledge that can be applied to policy problems to the role of expertise as staging arguments for public consideration. Drawing on Talcott Parsons’ arguments about the relation between the professions and the modern citizenship complex, the chapter argues that the current problem of expertise lies in the dismantling of citizenship associated with neo-liberal policies, which have created the conditions for populist partisanship. The marketisation of higher education has also facilitated the presentation of knowledge as the expression of interests. The chapter concludes by suggesting that the problem of expertise is better understood as a problem of democracy where the issue is less the contested nature of knowledge claims and more a new incivility – that undermines the staging of arguments in public domains.