On April 30th, from 10,30h to 13,30h, the Open and Innovation Research Group (IN3/UOC) and the Centre d’Història de la Ciència, CEHIC (UAB), with the support of Obra Social La Caixa, organize a public seminar on “Experts, Expertise and Scientific Authority: Historical and Sociological Approaches”.
The speakers in the seminar will be Wiebe Bijker (Maastricht Universiteit), José Ramon Bertomeu (Universitat de València), Miquel Domènech (UAB), Agustí Nieto-Galan (UAB) and Eduard Aibar (UOC).
This event is open to the public. Please, confirm your attendance sending an email to osi@uoc.edu.
“Experts, expertise and scientific authority: historical and sociological approaches”
Since 2002, when Harry Collins and Robert Evans published a much cited paper presenting three different waves of science studies, the theme of expertise has come to the forefront of much research in science and technology studies (STS). Questions about the use of scientific knowledge for policy making, the role of experts in social controversies, the public legitimation and contestation of scientific expertise or the participation of non-experts or even so-called lay experts in science or technology-based decisions, just to mention a few, have increasingly been addressed by many scholars in this area. Once scientific knowledge is mostly seen as situated, historically contingent and socially shaped, how can we still understand and analyse it as a source of authority and power in the political arena? This seminar aims to present and discuss some recent studies, both historical and sociological, on these issues.
Programme:
10.30-10.45 Introduction: Agustí Nieto-Galan and Eduard Aibar
10.45-11.00 Wiebe Bijker (Universiteit Maastricht): “The Paradox of Scientific Authority”
11.00-11.15 José Ramon Bertomeu (Universitat de València): “Medicine, Science and the Law: Two Received Views and New Perspectives”
11.15–11.45 Discussion
11.45-12.00 Pause
12.00-12.15 Miquel Domènech (UAB): “The Lay-Expert Relationship in Participatory Processes”
12.15-12.30 Agustí Nieto-Galan (UAB): “Scientific authority in the public sphere”
12.30-12.45 Eduard Aibar (UOC): “Lay Scientific Expertise in Wikipedia”
12.45-13.15 Discussion
Location:
Centre for the History of Science
Faculty of Sciences
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
08193, Bellaterra
Barcelona, Spain
Maps and transport:
IN3 events calendar: web