Tacit knowledge and knowing at the core of individual and collective expertise and professional action

Abstract

<p>This chapter elaborates the manifold characteristics of tacit knowledge and knowing in the construction of expertise. Expertise and tacit knowledge in various fields and professions have several characteristics that are closely intertwined. The chapter considers tacit knowledge in relation to skills and competences as well as in relation to the questions of explication and argumentation. Furthermore, the process and product aspects of tacit knowledge as well as individual and collective aspects are brought into discussion. This analysis leads to the presentation of a model in which the characteristics of tacit knowledge and expertise are intertwined into four different perspectives. Along with these four perspectives, the chapter touches upon current research in which the development of expertise is understood as a collective process combining individuals, communities, and the objects of their activities. Although tacit knowledge and knowing are difficult to explicate, they are closely intertwined with cognitive and emotional aspects in experts’ thinking and action – and it may be possible to analyse and examine them in greater detail.</p>