The Third Wave in Science and Technology Studies: Future Research Directions on Expertise and Experience

This book analyzes future directions in the study of expertise and experience with the aim of engendering more critical discourse on the general discipline of science and technology studies. In 2002, Collins and Evans published an article entitled “The Third Wave of Science Studies,” suggesting that the future of science and technology studies would be to engage in “Studies in Expertise and Experience.”  In their view, scientific expertise in legal and policy settings should reflect a consensus of formally-trained scientists and citizens with experience in the relevant field (but not “ordinary” citizens). The Third Wave has garnered attention in journals and in international workshops, where scholars delivered papers explicating the theoretical foundations and practical applications of the Third Wave. This book arose out of those workshops, and is the next step in the popularization of the Third Wave. The chapters address the novel concept of interactional experts, the useof imitation games, appropriating scientific expertise in law and policy settings, and recent theoretical developments in the Third Wave.

David S. Caudill, PhD, is the Golderg Family Chair in Law at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. He is the author of No Magic Wand (2006, with L.H. LaRue) and Stories about Science in Law (2011), as well as numerous articles and book chapters on expert evidence.

Shannon N. Conley, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in Integrated Science and Technology at James Madison University, where she co-directs the Science, Technology, and Society Futures Lab. She is a member of the Socio-Technical Integration Research (STIR) project, which embeds social scientists and humanities scholars in laboratories to explore responsible innovation.

Michael Gorman, PhD, is a Full Professor in Science, Technology & Society at the University of Virginia, and was an NSF Program Director for two years (2011-2012). His most recent book is Gorman, M.E. (Editor), Trading Zones and Interactional Expertise: Creating New Kinds of Collaboration (MIT Press,2010). 

Martin Weinel, PhD is a sociologist and researcher at the Cardiff School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University. He has written on aspects of expertise, science policy, interdisciplinarity, science communication and the Imitation Game. He is currently working on two EU-funded projects exploring the use of new technologies in industrial settings.