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Ordering the Social : The History of Knowledge and the Usefulness of (Studying) Social Taxonomies

Smedberg, Carl-Filip LU (2023) In History of Intellectual Culture: International Yearbook of Knowledge and Society 2. p.51-67
Abstract
During the twentieth century, a number of actors and institutions across
the global north set out to develop hierarchical social taxonomies of their national populations. Mainly used for the making of statistics, these divisions soon came to be influential in policy and public debates. Using mainly Swedish examples, this article offers new ways of understanding social taxonomies, thereby adding insights into an understudied research object within the field of history of knowledge. Social taxonomies connect mundane and practical aspects of knowledge in the making – in terms of how actors order empirical material to through these create statistics – with larger public debates on society. They are, moreover, linked to different epistemic... (More)
During the twentieth century, a number of actors and institutions across
the global north set out to develop hierarchical social taxonomies of their national populations. Mainly used for the making of statistics, these divisions soon came to be influential in policy and public debates. Using mainly Swedish examples, this article offers new ways of understanding social taxonomies, thereby adding insights into an understudied research object within the field of history of knowledge. Social taxonomies connect mundane and practical aspects of knowledge in the making – in terms of how actors order empirical material to through these create statistics – with larger public debates on society. They are, moreover, linked to different epistemic and political projects. I argue that social taxonomies should be understood as difference technologies; that is, ways of ordering and studying the social by producing differences between and sameness within its classifications. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
knowledge technology, social classifications, taxonomy, knowledge production, twentieth-century Sweden
host publication
History of Intellectual Culture
series title
History of Intellectual Culture: International Yearbook of Knowledge and Society
editor
Lerg, Charlotte ; Östling, Johan and Weiß, Jana
volume
2
pages
17 pages
publisher
De Gruyter
external identifiers
  • scopus:85176825645
ISSN
2747-6766
ISBN
978-3-11-107783-3
978-3-11-107808-3
DOI
10.1515/9783111078038-004
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
09375bcc-0fd4-4862-82da-aedc917b097e
date added to LUP
2023-11-06 18:40:57
date last changed
2024-04-30 17:33:03
@inbook{09375bcc-0fd4-4862-82da-aedc917b097e,
  abstract     = {{During the twentieth century, a number of actors and institutions across<br/>the global north set out to develop hierarchical social taxonomies of their national populations. Mainly used for the making of statistics, these divisions soon came to be influential in policy and public debates. Using mainly Swedish examples, this article offers new ways of understanding social taxonomies, thereby adding insights into an understudied research object within the field of history of knowledge. Social taxonomies connect mundane and practical aspects of knowledge in the making – in terms of how actors order empirical material to through these create statistics – with larger public debates on society. They are, moreover, linked to different epistemic and political projects. I argue that social taxonomies should be understood as difference technologies; that is, ways of ordering and studying the social by producing differences between and sameness within its classifications.}},
  author       = {{Smedberg, Carl-Filip}},
  booktitle    = {{History of Intellectual Culture}},
  editor       = {{Lerg, Charlotte and Östling, Johan and Weiß, Jana}},
  isbn         = {{978-3-11-107783-3}},
  issn         = {{2747-6766}},
  keywords     = {{knowledge technology; social classifications; taxonomy; knowledge production; twentieth-century Sweden}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{51--67}},
  publisher    = {{De Gruyter}},
  series       = {{History of Intellectual Culture: International Yearbook of Knowledge and Society}},
  title        = {{Ordering the Social : The History of Knowledge and the Usefulness of (Studying) Social Taxonomies}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/163961830/10.1515_9783111078038_004.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.1515/9783111078038-004}},
  volume       = {{2}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}