DOMINIC W. MASSARO, editor
University of California, Santa Cruz

The Societal Attribution of Expertise

Experts in Science and Society
Edited by Elke Kurz-Milcke and Gerd Gigerenzer. New York: Kluwer Academic/ Plenum, 2004. 314 pp. Cloth, $75.00.

Who are the experts we can trust? This question arises daily in courts and political committees and in our everyday life when we need a physician or advice on insurance. Today, the typical expert seems to be a scientist or at least someone with a science-based educational background, such as a physician or aircraft engineer. From this perspective, the question is, How does science translate into society? However, if we shift our perspective slightly from this supply-side point of view to the demand-side point of view, we might also ask ourselves, When do we usually need experts? We may think of legal experts, health care experts, environmental experts, and so on. How is the role of the expert constituted in a situation such as a judicial process or a political commission? This is the starting point of Experts in Science and Society, edited by Elke Kurz-Milcke and Gerd Gigerenzer.