Abstract—The article deals with the phenomenon of
epistemic communities. The concept (and the term) was coined
by P. Haas in the late XX century in an attempt to analyze
functions and political prospects of expert and professional
knowledge in the modern knowledge-based society. The concept
has been used widely during the recent decades in sociology of
knowledge, policy studies and social philosophy. However, no
(or very few) attempts to rethink the concept of epistemic
communities have been made, despite some critical remarks.
The article gives a review of research into epistemic
communities and introduces the concept of epistemic mode in
order to rethink the concept and make clear operational
mechanisms of epistemic communities as a specific form of
knowledge (expert) communities.
Index Terms—Epistemic communities, experts communities,
epistemic mode, knowledge-based society.
The authors are with the Far Eastern Federal University, School of
Regional and International Studies (e-mail:
marianna.y.smirnova@gmail.com, yachin@land.ru).
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Cite: Marianna Y. Smirnova and Sergey Y. Yachin, " Epistemic Communities and Epistemic Operating Mode," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 5, no. 7, pp. 646-650, 2015.