The Undead Linear Model of Expertise

Abstract

The problem the linear model of expertise is aimed at solving is the tension between expertise and democracy. Collins and Evans generated controversy when they suggested that we could break into three waves the responses to the tensions between expertise and democracy. The need for Collins and Evans to reconstruct expertise arises in part from the politically unpalatable way expertise is couched in the linear model of expertise. Collins and Evans's reconstruction of expertise carves out a domain for experts via a series of demarcations: Between technical and political phases of debates. There is a broad acknowledgement that a pure linear model of expertise both flaunts norms of democratic le..