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Explain social classification and its impact in society
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Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences was written by Geoffrey Bowker and Susan Leigh Star in 1999 and published by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This work, specifically the introduction discusses the idea of classification and how its patterns are a result of human nature. The authors argue that ultimately the reason we classify can be attributed to human qualities. This thesis is supported by relevant examples in our own lives. For example, the authors write about the classification found in a modern home from the fabric of the furniture to the various codes of building permits allowed. The act of classifying, according to the authors, is almost unconscious. They take this idea a step further by describing the process of classifying as being invisible. The introduction ultimately sets up a foundation for the authors to examine information infrastructures by using classification examples such as the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and the Nursing Interventions Classification. Their goal is to question why and how classification plays a role in life and human interaction. The authors commonly use relatable …show more content…
The Power to Name written by Hope A. Olson has similarities with this work in that classification systems are examined. Both authors argue that classification is part of life and can be considered a necessity. Basically, classification is ubiquitous and relevant to all facets of life. The Power to Name proves the difficulties posed by challenging a preexisting classification system (Dewey Decimal Classification) an idea that was brought up in Sorting Things Out. The idea of universality in classification is examined in Sorting Things Out by considering the lenses of anthropology, sociology, and history. Classification was used as a tool for understanding cultures for anthropologists, while sociologists have associated this with social
From the perspective of humanism, identity is something fixed, unchangeable and stable. With the development of deconstruction, new ideas about identity begin to prevail. Deconstructionists regard human identity “as a fluid, fragmented, dynamic collectivity of possible ‘selves’” (Tyson 335). Eddie’s identity is always fragmented, and each of the children represents a fragment of his identity. From the perspective of
The power of labeling can be seen in the the name that we were given. The name we use affects the way people treat you. It can also affect the behavior of other and how you behave also. This concept is basically the reactions we get from people and ourselves aswell from just naming things.
Shaw, Debbie. ”THEREFORE I AM - TECHNOLOGY & HUMAN IDENTITY.” Updated January 1997. Retrieved November 16th, 2004. http://learning.unl.ac.uk/humanIT/cybersf/ident.htm
In 1758 a Swedish botanist named Carolus Linnaeus established the classification system still in use for various forms of life. He listed four categories that he labeled as "varieties" of the human species. To each he attributed inherited biological as well as learned cultural characteristics. He described Homo European as light-skinned, blond, and governed by laws; Homo American was copper-colored and was regulated by customs; Homo Asiatic was sooty and dark-eyed and governed by opinions; Homo African was black and indolent and governed by impulse. We can in retrospect recognize the ethnocentric assumptions involved in these descriptions, which imply a descending order of prestige. Most striking is the labeling of the four varieties as governed by laws, customs, opinions, and impulse, with Europeans on the top and Africans at the bottom. In fact, different populations within all four varieties would have had all four forms of behavior. (8).
o In matters of “race” and “nationality”, in the way in which classifications work is especially apparent.
When it comes to the definition of technology in their articles, both Carr and Cascio have similarities and differences. Both authors are debating about the use of technology in today’s society. Both of their articles touch base on the ideals of “what technology is” in their perspectives. Carr believes that technology is making us want the quick path to information or common knowledge and says the Internet is “a machine designed for the efficient and automated collection, transmission, and manipulation of information”. Cascio also believes th...
People all around agree that technology is changing how we think, but is it changing us for the better? Clive Thompson definitely thinks so and this book is his collection of why that is. As an avid fiction reader I wasn’t sure this book would captivate me, but the 352 pages seemingly flew past me. The book is a whirlwind of interesting ideas, captivating people, and fascinating thoughts on how technology is changing how we work and think.
Categorizing is a fundamental behavior people do daily to grasp an understanding of his or her surroundings. This includes other people one may come in contact with. By labeling or judging others, a person gains a better sense of that individual without actually getting to know them. The behavior has become so common in society today to the point that it happens naturally without one realizing it. However, this can be also be considered a bad habit, because labeling can also cause stereotypes and hostility towards others. By fully understanding why people label others, one may be more aware of his or her own thought process. Author Brenda J. Allen addresses this issue in her book, Difference Matters, so people can change their behavior of labeling
Aimlessly walking, side by side, past, behind and in front of entities that contain an unimaginable capacity to store information. Cloaked by the vessle they inhabit; they perform the dance of their day. Each individual molded carefully by their history. Condemed they are, by the string of terms that are webbed by their identiy tags. Like chracters in a movie or a novel, individualas are created by the setting that surrounds them, and are defined and interpreted by the those who look upon them. Each and every individual is a peformer. Who we are is a product of a rhearsed, scheme of human action. We are socailly contructed, individualistic bodies with identities that are constantly in the process of transforming. Daily we play multiple roles, such as mother, son, doctor, patient, teacher and student. Socail scrips intertwine with these roles we play. Cultural intructions provided for how we must ineract and react to the roles of others. As individuals are engaged in their daily activities they internalize learned concepts that can often disfigure the image of a role being performed. Some individuals can be undermined and distorted by the values and performance they choose. The performance they choose to carry can put them in a classification that is below the cultural norm. One term can produce a mass of inimical characteristics fashioned from the past. Ignorant, narrow-minded, immoral, corrupt, sinful, deciteful, and bigoted are identities that are tied to their beilfs; a part of who they are. A part of their identiy that can not be concealed by an means of body modification. As a society we unwitteldly accept Christian hegemony in the United State through which we then actively participate in the encouragement of cultural myths...
Social identities are multiple, they may even overlap and can be linked to differences and similarities of others. Sociologists such as Erving Goffman or Harold Garfinkel consider that identities are socially constructed. In general identities are understood as ‘what people do’, rather than ‘what they are’, the given example of a person in the street looking in shop windows carrying bags, buying things, would be seen as a shopper (Taylor 2009 pg173) illustrates this. In everyday life people’s identities are part of social lives, in a two way relationship. We make society as much as it makes us, this helps to create as well as maintains social order. Identities can be both negatively and positively valued, and they are not always chosen, they can be given also. Homeless people for example have been labelled with a negative identity of ‘street people’, this was given to them by ourselves, which are considered to have a much more positive identity. This t...
Throughout society there are a lot of identities one might categorize themselves within; based on knowledge and opinions and fundamentally a way of life. The Social Identity theory, proposed by Henry Tajfel in the 1970’s is designed to explain and help aid in the understanding of how it is one might develop a connection and belonging to particular groups within society; but more importantly providing an understanding as to how the mechanics of discrimination regarding other groups work.
However it is important to recognise that the criticisms of labelling theory are not straight-forward. The complexity of criticism is due to the diverse range of theorists’ stances within the labelling theory (Heidensohn 1989). Such criticisms will now be identified and
Labelling theory has some limitations when used to describe queerness. Firstly, the “deviant” label does not actually create the queerness it describes, but rather emphasizes the importance of this label to society through the negative sanctions experienced by queer individuals. This theory overlooks the initial deviant act and therefore, the label does not actually create the deviance. As Clinard and Meier (2014) state, secondary deviation can occur even without arrest and negative sanctions. Most people who develop homosexual identities do so independent of contact with police officers or psychiatrists. This theory also does not provide concrete explanation of how much negative sanctions are needed to acquire a deviant label. Some queer individuals will experience less negative sanctions than others, but that does not make their label any less queer because one person cannot be more “gay” than another. And as discussed in lecture, labelling theory focuses on lower class deviance, but social and economic class has nothing to do with queerness.
This paper is examining how the Dewey Decimal Classification System (DDC) has been adapted and translated in both Western and non-Western Nations and the problems that have arisen during this process. In this paper we will first examine what the DDC is which includes looking into its history specifically into how Mr. Custer helped the DDC become an international classification system. Next we will focus on the problems that arise during the process of adapting and translating the DDC from one culture to another. Before the conclusion there will be a literature review that looks into how Western and non-Western nations adapt to the DDC.
THESIS: Scientists and other intellectuals recognize the modern concept of "race" as an artificial category that developed over the past five centuries due to encounters with non-European people. Even though people still attempt to organize humans into categories according to their race, these categories have been shown to have no scientific basis.