From lived experience to lived expertise: How donor-conceived witnesses claim and sustain epistemic authority

Abstract

Scholars in pragmatics have long been interested in how knowledge is construed, contested and legitimised. Much recent work in pragmatics has focused on developing more detailed theoretical understandings of epistemic positioning and epistemic authority, including in institutional contexts which are typically characterised by knowledge asymmetries and power inequalities. Yet the relational consequences of epistemic positioning have received little attention, therefore, this article aimed to investigate how authority and community are simultaneously negotiated in interaction, turn by turn. Taking a social semiotic approach, combining analysis using exchange structure, evidence and epistemic stance frameworks, this article examines a public hearing of the 2010 Senate Committee Inquiry into Donor Conception in Australia. Findings reveal four cumulative discursive patterns: donor-conceived witnesses positioned their lived experience as non-negotiable, cast doubt on fertility practitioners' expertise, layered opinions upon experience and employed recognised knowledges to bolster authority. This article introduces the concept of ‘lived expertise’; that is, authority grounded in experience and sustained through awareness of additional forms of experiential and institutional knowledges. Empirically, this study sheds light on how donor-conceived people – as people with lived experience – expand the subject positions afforded to them in institutional contexts, inviting legitimacy and belonging.