Short description:

This book provides a much-needed account of the role and re-organization of expertise and expert knowledge in Europe and the European Union in a broad range of policy spheres, contributing to the debate triggered by the recent crises.

Long description:

Expertisation and Democracy in Europe provides a much-needed account of the role and re-organisation of expertise and expert knowledge in Europe and the European Union in a broad range of policy spheres, contributing to the debate triggered by the recent crises. It brings novel perspectives to debates on technocracy and our understanding of the relations between knowledge, experts and democracy.

The book explores and assesses new and old linkages between knowledge, expertise and democracy, and expands and deepens the current debates by addressing questions such as: What is the role of expertise in Europe? How is knowledge of different kinds embedded in and decisive for democratic practice in contemporary democracies? How are we to assess recent transformations of the expert-citizens and government-civil society relationships from the perspective of democracy, and which paths are viable in the years to come? Finally, the book engages with and gives flesh to the notion of expertisation not only as a broad political and societal diagnosis, but also as a multidimensional and deeply contested process that enfolds in concrete practices and institutional settings.

This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of European studies, European and European Union politics, democracy, public policy, international relations, sociology, gender studies and media studies.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: Expertisation and Democracy in Europe [Magdalena Góra, Cathrine Holst and Marta Warat]

1. Exploring the Connection between Knowledge and Democracy [Christopher Lord]

2. Reassessing the Monnet Method: Technocratic or Deliberative? [John. R. Moodie]

3. The Expertisation of Stakeholder Involvement in EU Policy Making [?se Gornitzka and Eva Krick]

4. The European Commission Expert Groups ? More than Expertise [Silje Hexeberg T?rnblad]

5. The Role of Think Tanks and Experts in Legitimisation of the European Neighbourhood Policy [Magdalena Góra]

6. The Role of Expertise in the European Refugee Crisis [Espen D. H. Olsen]

7. Unpacking Gender Expertise: The Case of the European Women?s Lobby [Helena Seibicke and Cathrine Holst]

8. Uneasy Relation: Gender Expertise and Gender Equality Policy in Poland [Marta Warat]

9. The Media as Public Intermediaries of Knowledge in Europe: From Deliberation to Democratic Legitimation [Asimina Michailidou and Hans-Jörg Trenz]

10. Why Does Democracy Need Participation? Participatory Budgeting in Medellin, Colombia and Krakow, Poland [Anna Bednarczyk and Inga Hajdarowicz]

Afterward: Democratic Theory, Knowledge Theory and Institutional Design: Lessons From Europe [Cathrine Holst]