Professionals of International Affairs and Legitimacy: Expertise, Politics and Democracy
International Relations and Ethics Research Theme Workshop
9 February 2022: 12.30 – 17.00, King’s College London
This interdisciplinary workshop brings together scholars who work on different professionals of international affairs to assess how these actors build legitimacy in a world that seems to increasingly turn against the rule by unelected professionals. The papers will analyse legitimacy in relation to other concepts such as authority, symbolic power, expertise, objectivity, impartiality and democracy in various contexts.
- How is the legitimacy of a profession in international affairs established?
- Who can speak legitimately as an expert and on behalf of an issue or social group?
- How do professionals gain legitimacy for their knowledge claims? And how do political actors delegitimise such claims?
- How is the rule of experts legitimised in democracies?
Find out more about the IR & Ethics Research Theme in the Department of War Studies, KCL:
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/security-studies/themes/irethics
Theme leads: Dr Alvina Hoffmann & Josh Walmsley
RCIR: Research Centre in International Relations 