Unpacking Black-Boxed Expertization: The Case of the Korean Astronaut Program

• In Event: Reimagining Expertise, Reconfiguring the Disciplines

Abstract

The process of becoming an expert has been black-boxed for a long time. Although most people do not know the specifics of how experts are made, they accept the authority of experts. However, the Korean Astronaut Program (KAP) opened the black-box to the public, with mixed results.
In selecting and training the first Korean astronaut, Dr. Soyeon Yi, KAP sought to make her, though neither educated nor experienced in the space field, into a new kind of spaceflight expert. The entire KAP program, from the application to the selection and training was open to the general public through the media. And, after the training and spaceflight in 2008, Dr. Yi was publicly called and introduced as a space expert in Korea by the agencies which operated KAP. After initial public acceptance, however, Dr. Yi’s status as an expert became increasingly controversial, and the KAP program itself lost its stature.
This research considers KAP as an attempt to construct a new kind of expert through an open and public process. By examining this process, it argues that broad acceptance of experts has heavily relied on the obscurity of the expertization process. This research will provide a better understanding of how a new kind of expert could emerge and be accepted.

Author

• Seungmi Chung, Virginia Tech