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The Politics of Categorization

INFO 272. Qualitative Research Methods. The Politics of Categorization. Classification Systems. Consistent, unique classificatory principles in operation Categories are mutually exclusive System is complete (total coverage of the world it describes). Kinds of Classification Systems.

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The Politics of Categorization

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  1. INFO 272. Qualitative Research Methods The Politics of Categorization

  2. Classification Systems • Consistent, unique classificatory principles in operation • Categories are mutually exclusive • System is complete (total coverage of the world it describes)

  3. Kinds of Classification Systems

  4. History of Racial Typing • Phrenology • Craniometry • Physiognomy 1906 text book -http://www.flickr.com/photos/herzogbr/2228668286/sizes/l/

  5. UNESCO “The Race Question” 1950, following WWII, a meeting of social scientists: • One species • Likeness is greater than difference • Variability within is greater than variability between • “Race” as concentration (due to isolation) of genes or physical characteristics that nonetheless fluctuate • No evidence for correlations in intelligence • No negative biological consequences from ‘race-mixing’ • ‘race’ as a social myth

  6. Racial Classification in South Africa Under Apartheid [Pass Book, From Sorting Things Out, pg. 199]

  7. Reclassification and Passing • Drop of blood test (in the American South) • Gaining acceptance and repute step-by-step • The appearance of the ideal-type classification system

  8. Borderlands • Abandoned newborn baby • Scrap-metal dealer’s visitor • Vik Wilkinson • Light-skinned girl born to dark-skinned ‘African’ parents • Children with adrenal gland problem • Daughter with dormant genetic expression of black ancestry

  9. Torque • mismatch between classification system and individuals’ biography • trajectory of the classification system pulls and warps the trajectory of biography

  10. Apartheid, in Summary • Extreme: An enforced and policed classification system • “classifying individuals into life-determining boxes, outside of their control, tightly coupled with their every movement…”

  11. Inductive Analysis • Political/ethical justification • A general lesson in the difficulty of coding, categorizing, etc. – remember to account for the ‘borderlands’

  12. Classification in Practice • Mismatch between ‘code’ and data • Roth “Hired Hand Research” • ‘Bad’ Clinical Records

  13. Looking Towards Thursday • Constructing analytic codes and categories ‘grounded’ in the data • Various coding practices

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