ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book reveals that how the women's movement in Europe relies extensively on expert knowledge in its argumentation and mobilisation. It argues that the technocratic critique so often raised against European Union (EU) executives is misunderstood, and highlights how EU-level policymaking and the Monnet Method are genuinely deliberative and consultative, granting a wide scope for civil-society influence. The book describes how contemporary knowledge society unfolds also from below, as increasingly educated citizens appropriate knowledge, form and engages in new social movements, and operates as active users of knowledge and information in a digital age. It discusses the epistemic merits – and problems – with expertisation, or rather, different expertisastion patterns and introduces taxonomies of expertise. The book focuses on the role of expertise and expertisation tendencies in civil society, interest groups, public intermediaries and local-level decision-making.
