The Performativity of Expertise and the Authority of Professional Discourse: How Experts Function in Public Communication

A Critical Analysis of How Satirists Engage Expert Authority and Professional Legitimacy

Expert Authority and the Performance of Knowledge: How Professionals Establish CredibilityExpertise functions through performance: professionals establish authority through language, credentials, institutional affiliation. Yet expertise remains fundamentally performative—it depends on audiences accepting professionals' claims to specialized knowledge.The Contingency of Expert AuthorityExperts exercise authority not through direct access to truth but through credentialing processes and discourse conventions. Different professions employ different legitimacy strategies: scientists cite methodology and evidence; doctors invoke medical authority; economists deploy mathematical models. All function through performance of specialized knowledge.Satire highlighting "expert" discourse makes visible the performance dimensions. By treating expert language ironically, satire suggests that expertise might constitute elaborate performance rather than access to genuine knowledge.This connects to Foucauldian analysis of power/knowledge: how knowledge claims function as exercises of power rather than access to objective truth. Expert discourse establishes authority relationships; it makes certain voices authoritative and others illegitimate.See the Pharmacy congress piece for analysis of expert authority.Conclusion: Satire as Epistemological CritiqueSatire engaging expert discourse reveals how authority operates through language and performance. By treating expert claims with irony, satire makes visible the contingency of professional legitimacy.SOURCE: https://prat.uk/clinical-pharmacy-congress-london-promises-exciting-discussions-about-pills/

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Pub: 25 Apr 2026 13:38 UTC

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