Experts as non-experts: A case from SSC

This article explores the relationship between experts and non-experts by examining of the SSC issue. The SSC, or Superconducting Super Collider, was a large particle accelerator proposed in the early 1980s in the USA and cancelled in 1993. The SSC is generally talked about as a quintessential big science or megascience project. These big science projects inevitably need to be supported not only by government and industries but also by researchers who belong to other research fields or disciplines. High-energy physicists are experts within high-energy physics, but they are non-experts in other disciplines. The Japanese decision-making process of the SSC project clearly represents these interactions between experts and non-experts.