On conveying and not conveying expertise

Abstract

This article attends to the movement between disclosing and non-disclosing in accounts of expertise. While referencing STS discussions about tacit knowledge (‘experts know more than they can say’) and the politics of non-disclosure (withholding can help as well as harm expert credibility), in the main it considers how experts move between conveying and not conveying in order to make their proficiencies recognized and accessible to others. The article examines this movement through a form that partakes in it, thus drawing attention to conventions and tensions in how authors make themselves accountable, and their subject matter available, to audiences. It thereby proposes to explore the possibilities of careful, and generative, non-disclosure as part of expert writing practices.