Experts, Idiots, and Liars: The Gender Politics of Knowledge and Expertise in Turbulent Times

Abstract

This special issue advances feminist inquiry and theorizing of the politics of knowledge within our current, highly paradoxical societal landscape. It draws together feminist analyses of “expertise” with feminist epistemologies of situated knowledge, Black feminist thought, theory of affect and emotions, sociology of knowledge, and science and technology studies (STS). As such, it enables a timely interdisciplinary engagement with current paradigmatic shifts in knowledge production and claims to expertise as well as an examination of the gendered and racialized epistemic authority. For several decades, the study of “knowledge,” changing modes of knowledge production, and the dynamics shaping the recognition of expertise were largely confided to the specialized subfields of sociology of knowledge and STS. In the last ten to fifteen years, however, these themes have become a common research focus in a wide array of social studies, including gender studies. There are diverse reasons for the increasing popularity of this research focus, and each has profound implications for gender equality claims. The epochal transformations from industrial to knowledge-based economies and the increasing complexity of policy problems is one of the most important factors driving this increased analytical focus on knowledge. These epochal shifts have amplified the relevance of knowledge-intensive policy areas and profoundly reshaped political processes and public communication into a novel style of governing through knowledge, resulting in both the scientification of politics and heightened politicization of expertise. Feminists’ mobilization of “gender experts” and the dilemmas and restrictions associated with such a position are emblematic of this style of governing through knowledge.