ABSTRACT
I begin this chapter with the presumption that expertise is not possessed; it is asserted with more or less success in particular contexts. The successful assertion of expertise requires knowledge and experience, but these factors are not sufficient. Expertise designates not knowledge, but authoritative knowledge, where authority is the power to speak for, and expertise is thus the power to speak for a problem or set of problems. As such, expertise is a political accomplishment that is co-produced with problems themselves (Jasanoff 2004). Different arenas of political discourse are constituted with different standards of expertise.
