Expertise in the age of post-factual politics: An outline of reflexive strategies

What has become known as post-factual politics poses particular challenges to the role of expertise, calling for a new type of reflexivity able to inform scholarly strategies towards policy. Taking recent literature on the 'practice turn' as our point of departure, we argue for introducing a sense of 'practical reflexivity' that can provide guidance for the practice of scholars. Practical reflexivity focuses on the everyday practices of scholars rather than epistemic ideals or formal methodological rules. It directs our attention to the relation between academic and other practices. At this conjunction, several practical challenges arise. We discuss three major challenges and identify them as the epistemic, the autonomy and the performativity dilemmas. To seek answers to these, we explore the repertoire provided by three reflexive strategies outlined in neo-Gramscianism, Bourdieusian praxeology and pragmatism. The outcome is a tool for rethinking the relation between everyday practices of scholars and non-scholarly practices that may be usefully adopted in the current situation.