Skill

In everyday speech, the keyword “skill” tends to reference applied or vocational knowledge, often in contrast to abstract, academic, or theoretical knowledge. One can be a skillful beekeeper or social organizer without being a credentialed entomologist or sociologist (and the reverse). The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes this contemporary definition of “skill” as the “capability of accomplishing something with precision and certainty,” the “ability to perform a function, acquired or learnt with practice,” hence “practical knowledge” or “expertness.” But it also references a now archaic meaning of the term as “an art or science” in general. In entries on “art” and “science” in his Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society ([1976] 1983), Raymond Williams notes that this earlier usage references a historical moment that did not functionally divide art and science as ways of knowing or doing. The history of this division has much to tell us about why knowledge and skill have come to seem separable in discussions of education and work and how a rethinking of this separation may be necessary to pursue projects that seek to cross disciplines, sectors, and communities.