Perspectives on knowledge-producing responsibility in forensic death investigations: a new way to approach professional knowledge work

Abstract Organizational and sociological studies of professions typically approach knowledge as something professionals acquire during education, training, and work experience and apply flexibly when providing their services. This paper expands the view by addressing how professionals produce knowledge, asking how they make judgement about how far to pursue their knowledge-making. Based on original, qualitative data on forensic pathology in Sweden, I introduce the concept of knowledge-producing responsibility to address how such judgements take place relative to knowledge about causes of death. I present two perspectives on knowledge-producing responsibility. The research perspective values detail, being extensive, and as close to the truth about the case as possible. The bureaucratic perspective focuses on delivery time, restrictive resource-use, and provision of answers. The question of how far to pursue investigations is incremental to all forms of knowledge production and hence of a general nature. Knowledge-producing responsibility offers several directions for potential studies of related questions of professional knowledge work.