Reed, Cara  ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1085-1661, Bristow, Alexandra and Lotta, Gabriela Spanghero
2026.
Expert futures? Re-examining the role of experts and expertise in organisations and organising.
Organization
10.1177/13505084261464326
|
Preview |
PDF
- Accepted Post-Print Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (395kB) | Preview |
Abstract
In this editorial, we link the notions of experts and expertise to onto-epistemological justice and call for their re-examination in light of pressing contemporary challenges, crises and complexities. We argue that the debates on experts and expertise in and around organisations can be understood through a matrix of two key tensions – dismissal versus affirmation of expert authority and depolitisation versus politisation of expertise. Taken together, these produce four positions – technical dismissal, politicised dismissal, politicised affirmation and technical affirmation – that are mobilised by academics, practitioners, policymakers, politicians, media, and experts themselves, often simultaneously and in contradictory ways. We offer the matrix as an analytical tool to build on the Organization heritage of engagement with expert power and contestation, and develop new understandings of the current condition of experts and expertise in organizational contexts. The papers in the special issue surface these tensions in the forms of politicised dismissal of expertise through neoliberal erosion, the expert work of politicised affirmation, and politicised self-affirmation and self-dismissal of the dark side of expertise. We examine the continuities and differences in the organization of experts, the organizing of expertise, and the power dynamics involved. We also call for future critical research to continue to deconstruct, problematize and reconceptualize experts and expertise, particularly in relation to key societal challenges and more extreme contexts of expert organizing.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Date Type: | Published Online |
| Status: | In Press |
| Schools: | Schools > Business (Including Economics) |
| Additional Information: | RRS policy applied |
| Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
| ISSN: | 1350-5084 |
| Date of First Compliant Deposit: | 24 July 2026 |
| Date of Acceptance: | 15 June 2026 |
| Last Modified: | 24 Jul 2026 08:30 |
| URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/188389 |
Actions (repository staff only)
 |
Edit Item |
Altmetric
Altmetric