Is There an Expert in the House? Knowledge Production, Cultural Discourses and Youth Culture

Mark W. Rectanus (Iowa State University) [BIO]

Email: mwr@iastate.edu

 

ABSTRACT:

This paper will explore recent shifts in the production of knowledge by examining how cultural discourses shape knowledge production, how expert knowledge is being redefined, and the role of youth culture in shaping academic discourses. As Norbert Bolz has observed, the increasing erosion of expert knowledge systems within the public sphere, most notably through the growing acceptance of lay knowledge in online communication networks such as Wikipedia, has accelerated the de-centering of the book as a primary medium of knowledge communication and as a locus of academic discourse. Although scholarly presses have, from a historical perspective, responded to and shaped socio-cultural discourses, these publishers increasingly hybridize book contents in order to reach wider readerships and to maintain their status in contemporary cultural debates. Based on research by Nico Stehr (Knowledge Politics), I will argue that these developments have contributed to an increasing focus on the performative, i.e., the manner in which knowledge is “acted out”. While themed environments such as Internet cafes, science centers, or entertainment venues have become sites for gathering information and producing knowledge, traditional centers for information and knowledge acquisition, such as (university) libraries, are evolving into centers for social networking and event culture – in short, the deterritorialization of knowledge production. These processes are altering the definition of what constitutes knowledge, how it is produced, and by whom. As a result, we need to create critical frameworks for content and knowledge which will empower individuals and communities as they navigate the information society, while simultaneously reexamining the multiple roles that experts should play. In this regard, the creation and validation of knowledge through the informed and critical engagement of communities of scholars is more crucial than ever.