Publisher's Synopsis
This special issue investigates knowledge in practice. More specifically, the collection illustrates the exercise of 'expertise', and explores the criteria by which expert knowledge is judged and the social processes of its validation. Grounded in ethnographic fieldwork among weavers, builders, healers, diviners, poets and Islamic scholars, the articles reflect upon the words and deeds of skilled practitioners as they are enounced and enacted in the realm of ritual and the sacred, as well as in the schedule of everyday life and work.By situating actors within local networks of fellow practitioners, clients and pupils, as well as within the wider context of national agendas and global economies, a multiplicity of channels for the constitution of knowledge and the negotiation of expertise are explored.
