Because they say so. Expertise and travelling knowledge in the case of the Dutch psychiatrist Gerbrandus Jelgersma.

Abstract

This thesis combines Bruno Latour's model of cycles of accumulation with Wulf Kansteiner's model of communication and representation to further the understanding of the notion of expertise (authoritative, specialist knowledge) and its correlation with the concept of travelling knowledge. To do so, this thesis presents a case-study of the construction of expertise by a Dutch psychiatrist, Gerbrandus Jelgersma (1859-1941). This thesis examines the structures underlying the construction of expertise and knowledge, Jelgersma's efforts to produce knowledge and make this knowledge travel and the reception of this knowledge and the accordance of expertise by a broader public. Moreover, the findings presented in this thesis underline the idea that expertise is always contested, knowledge is easily appropriated by a public and that the public thus plays a major role in according expertise. Expertise is thus not a matter of 'because I say so', but of 'because they say so.' Also, the use of satirical caricatures offers new insights concerning the relation between class and expertise.