Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences

by Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star

Book Overview

A revealing and surprising look at how classification systems can shape both worldviews and social interactions.

What do a seventeenth-century mortality table (whose causes of death include "fainted in a bath," "frighted," and "itch"); the identification of South Africans during apartheid as European, Asian, colored, or black; and the separation of machine- from hand-washables have in common? All are examples of classification--the scaffolding...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262522950
• ISBN13: 9780262522953
• Release Date: August 2000
• Publisher: MIT Press
• Length: 392 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.1"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher