Description
It’s not that long ago that the world had seemingly had enough of experts – but instead of disappearing, expert opinion is currently more sought after than ever. The pandemic is only the latest instalment in an ongoing struggle over the role of expertise, which is part of every crisis and important to the calibration of each response. Every decision in the field of health sits at the intersection of various forms of expertise, ranging from the very specialised medical/technical realm to that of the specialised politico-diplomatic field. A deeper understanding of tensions and contestations between these very different hierarchies of evidence can show not only the magnitude of challenge faced by global health institutions such as the World Health Organisation and by national governments in a time of crisis, but also the different modalities of normalisation and exclusion at work in each field of health governance.
