Socioplastics 11904 The Expert Report Conceals the Decision
Specialist knowledge does not automatically make its reasoning open to the people affected by a decision. ExpertiseFog names the opacity that forms when assumptions, instruments, professional thresholds and exceptions disappear behind a conclusion presented as technically self-evident. Specialised competence is essential in many decisions; public accountability depends on making the pathway from expertise to action understandable. Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga’s work on African histories of technology challenges the restriction of expertise to formally credentialled institutions. Maya Indira Ganesh studies artificial intelligence and the ways technical systems shape human interpretation. Their work helps researchers examine how expertise is assembled and how its authority travels through tools, institutions and reports. A planning report could be audited by mapping its evidence, methods, uncertainty and recommendations. Each recommendation would link to the underlying observations and identify which professional judgement shaped it. A public summary could explain how technical findings affected the final decision and where elected officials or administrators exercised discretion. The audit would keep technical analysis and political choice distinguishable within the same record. ExpertiseFog offers a method for making the chain of reasoning visible. It supports public understanding while respecting the complexity of specialist work. By showing how instruments, assumptions and exceptions informed a conclusion, institutions can invite better questions and allow affected communities to assess how expertise shaped their environment. Technical authority becomes easier to trust when its path into a decision can be followed. A documented chain also allows future reviewers to understand where evidence ended and where institutional judgement began. This distinction matters when a recommendation is contested or its effects differ from what the report anticipated.
REFERENCES
Ganesh, M.I. (2020) “Between metaphor and meaning: AI and being human”, Interactions, 27(1), pp. 58–62.
Mavhunga, C.C. (2014) Transient Workspaces: Technologies of Everyday Innovation in Zimbabwe. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
CITE AS
Lloveras, A. (2026) Socioplastics, LAPIEZA-LAB, Madrid.
https://antolloveras.blogspot.com/p/socioplastics-project-index.html