The Making of Expertise in Turbulent Times: Scientific, Functional, and Experiential Knowledge in the Clean Air Movement

This study contributes to the literature on expertise and social movements by advancing a production model of expertise that highlights how crises destabilize established domains of authority and generate new forms of knowledge through relational and collective processes. While prior research has emphasized boundary maintenance and contestation within professional and occupational groups, this study foregrounds how disruptions—such as the COVID-19 pandemic—can catalyze the reconfiguration of boundaries and the emergence of alternative expertise. Through a qualitative study of the Clean Air movement in Canada, we examine how coalitions of academics, professionals, and laypeople mobilized in response to the pandemic to advocate for improved indoor air quality, particularly in schools. Based on interviews with 30 informants and analysis of documents and social media content, we identify how diverse actors formed cross-sectoral alliances and developed new expertise to address airborne disease transmission. We find that the production of expertise was shaped by three archetypes—scientific, functional, and experiential expertise—each associated with distinct practices: reforming technical knowledge within established institutions, creating professional standards, and assembling grassroots networks. These findings reveal how crises act as catalysts for boundary reconfigurations, allowing disparate actors to co-produce new domains of expertise and challenge traditional authority structures.

About Maxim Voronov

Maxim conducts research on the dynamics of social change at organizational, industry and societal levels. He is especially interested in how people and organizations deploy cultural resources to bring about or resist social change. He has studied the role of emotions in social change, the role of social movements in creating popular support for local products, and organizations’ efforts to promote new ideas. He is currently conducting several projects that examine the role of authenticity in business and in society at large. He is also studying organizational and societal responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. Maxim’s work appears or is forthcoming in such leading management journals as Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, and Harvard Business Review, among others. He is a Senior Editor at Organization Studies and is currently serving on the editorial boards of Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, and Research in the Sociology of Organizations.

***Because Maxim will be spending April 15th-18th with us at RSM, you will be able to grab coffee with him across those four days, so w would encourage you to reach out to him directly if you want. Sign up for a more ‘formal’ meeting schedule for the day of his talk (including lunch and dinner slots) here.