Lay Knowledge: The Missing Middle of the Expertise Debates

Abstract

A polarised debate has arisen within science studies, medical sociology and health communication over the possibility of ‘lay expertise’. Expertise, or the acquisition and development of specialised technical knowledge, has traditionally been seen as one of the foundations of professional authority. The concept of lay expertise has been used both narrowly, to refer to lay people’s active participation in the development of scientific and medical knowledge, and broadly, to refer to the general cultural stock of knowledge held by everyone in society. A backlash has arisen in response to the concept of lay expertise, primarily from scholars who have argued that the concept is an oxymoron because knowledge cannot simultaneously be specialised and held by non-specialists. Prior (2003), for example, has argued for ‘illness experience’ over ‘lay expertise’, because patients’ and caregivers’ knowledge is individual and idiosyncratic.