The Reality of Experts and the Imagined Lay Person

Abstract

This article examines the role of lay persons in the thinking and working of experts in different fields at the borders of academic knowledge production. The status of lay persons has been studied in the Public Understanding of Science (PUS) research, which has shed light on the implicit assumptions of the deficit model that experts usually apply to lay persons. This deficit model has been consistently criticized for its inadequacy. The purpose of this article is not to contribute to this critique but to focus on the conceptions of the expertise of lay persons as a necessary prerequisite of science-based recommendations in the context of application. We call such conceptions `imagined lay persons' (ILP). We argue that such conceptions fulfil a functional purpose in the interaction between different fields in knowledge societies, and that such conceptions should not be checked against some alleged essential features of lay persons. Based on four different case studies of science centres, environmental science and consultations, as well as state regulations of genetically modified organisms, the authors examine the image of these imagined lay persons and what role they play in expertise.