ABSTRACT
This chapter examines questions of expertise and the relationships between the justification and application of knowledge, with a focus on the geographies of knowledge production. It presents a typology for the spatial dimension of expertise in terms of the relations between excellence, relevance and scale and examines how particular ideas of expertise and knowledge are reproduced within certain groups. The 21st century city has been predicated on forms of technocratic and economic knowledge. This results in a tendency towards data rather than intelligence and quick fixes, rather than understanding and learning, being prioritised. A narrow understanding of expertise and knowledge is reproduced in elite, epistemic groups. What happens when the boundaries between values, knowledge, action and the present and future start to move and blend for particular purposes? Popular examples of success hold an exemplary status as cities and universities seek to replicate the same outcomes to achieve global recognition. However, what of those who are left out of this race? Whose knowledge matters?
