ooooh, stuff about the role of the expert is part of my thesis. sorry to lower the tone here, but
[rant]
Yes, academics are denigrated in the media etc but part of it is the fault of those academics who promote all this rubbish about 'lay expertise', which has led to riduculous notions such as the whole 'public participation' and 'personalisation of public services' thing, in other words the tyranny of the terminally stupid.
I defy anyone to come up with anything more depressing than this, from a recent press release from my uni about a new research project:
'One exciting aspect of the research is the inclusion in the team, not just of academics, but of three members of the public ... who have been involved in designing and managing the study and ensuring that the information it produces is interpreted appropriately'
I mean, why dont i just shoot myself now, as you are clearly better off without a PhD if you want to do reasearch.
[/rant]