Credibility Tactics Among the “Questionably”-Professional: The Communicative work of Fiction Critics and Management Consultants

• In Event: 2350 - Fields and Identities

Abstract

This paper explores the intersection of two opposing trends. First, the rise expert service workers, which refer to knowledge workers whom sell their expert knowledge and services on the free market (but lack traditional hallmarks of professionals)⁠. Second is the growing incredulity and skepticism towards all kinds of expert knowledge. How do these two trends intertwine and entangle in the everyday experiences of expert service workers whom make up the largest and fastest growing occupational group in the United States? More specifically, how do they convince others that what they say, their professional expertise, is credible? Drawing on two disparate case studies of expert evaluators – fiction reviewers and management consultants – we document two communicative patterns that these professional groups employ to build the credibility of their professional recommendations: (i) epistemic enrolment and (ii) distanciation. We conclude by discussing how our findings providing tools for studying the variegated nature of knowledge-claims has value in and of itself, but perhaps takes on a new significance at a time when there is a rise of new types of experts in the market and a cultural moment when even traditional experts are being contested based on considerations of the credibility of the speakers.

Author

• Phillipa K. Chong, McMaster University