Eremenko, I., & Filimonov, K. (2021). Developing an Expert Community and Defining its Role in the Politics and Decision-Making of a World Heritage City: The Experience of Bamberg. The Journal of Social Policy Studies, 19(2), 327-338. https: ...

Текст статьи на сайте журнала URL: https://jsps.hse.ru/index.php/jsps/article/view/12705 (дата обращения 20.07.2021)

Abstract

This article investigates the role of expertise and the expert community throughlocal politics and decision-making in a World Heritage City. The expert publiccommunity and its inclusion in decision-making are important factors influencing the successful coordination of public interests. The authors demonstratehow developing forms of public governance change the local expert communityand transform its structure and core principles, leading to more open anddemocratic expertise. Using the case study of local urban politics, the authorsillustrate that the social authority of expert knowledge and its influence ondecision-making is increasingly dependent on public opinion and the diversification of the structures of expert communities. The latter implies, inparticular, the inclusion of citizens who do not have formal expert status butwho have sufficient experience and authority to influence urban policy. Usingthe example of the World Heritage City, the authors consider cases where theharmonization of the interests of the participants of urban policies requiresan unusual approach from the public administration, taking into account itsobligation to follow formal procedures and regulations and its need to ensuregreater involvement of citizens in the decision-making process. Our researchshowed that, in some situations, these recommendations were more authoritative and earned a higher degree of trust from the citizens than recommendationsfrom people with formal expert status. This trend is in line with larger changesin public administration, which is becoming more adaptive, complex, polycentric, and oriented towards productive cooperation. Expert communities arebecoming more fragmentary due to the active involvement of actors who, by their socio-professional status, are not formal experts but have significantexperience and social influence, especially in the local community.