The relational embeddedness of "lay experts": Geographies of digitally mediated expertise in times of "crisis"

• Applicant: Dr. Verena Brinks
• Subject Area: Human Geography
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 522487831

Contemporary experiences with multiple crises raise questions on the function and legitimacy of “experts” who have an advisory role in crisis response. The research project understands “the expert” as a deeply relational role that only comes into existence in concrete contexts of advice giving. Who performs the expert role cannot be explained by criteria such as formal qualification or professional affiliation alone. However, while there is knowledge about “certified experts” (such as scientific advisors) in terms of their sources of expertise (e.g. their membership in specialist communities), such insights are largely lacking for so-called “lay experts”. Lay experts can be defined as individuals who perform an advisory role despite missing formal qualification in the respective field. Especially due to digital media, this expert category is of increasing political and societal relevance because of the very large reach of some lay experts. By taking the current “energy crisis” as the empirical example, the aim of the project is to learn more about the relational embeddedness of lay experts in (trans-local) community structures, their knowledge sources and resources as well as the negotiation and performance of expertise in digital space and under the extraordinary conditions of “crisis”. The project applies a qualitative research design. The empirical core are semi-structured interviews with identified lay experts as well as a netnographic analysis of digitally mediated expertise. Overall, the project aims at contributing to two research fields in human geography: The contribution to "Digital Geographies" encompasses the particularities of digitally mediated expertise as well as the deep entanglements of digital interaction and material, local conditions. To the field of "Geographies of Expertise", the project contributes to theorizing the spatiality of expertise (also in contrast to “knowledge”) as well as illustrating the specifics of “crisis” for the performance of expertise.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants