Scholars Award: Measure for Measure: Social Ontologies of Classification

该项目由科学、技术和社会项目资助，研究了不同形式的社会分类——从高雅到低俗，从科学到大众，从国家指导到社会驱动——在特定社会中如何相互关联，并解释了它们在支持它们的制度和政治构成中的共同起源。PI通过详细分析美国和法国关于分类的三个争论的出现和发展，调查了国家分类风格的存在：葡萄酒的排名，书籍的数字化和自然的经济价值。这些争论在每个国家的展开和解决是紧随其后的，尽管它们在起源、目的和功能上存在巨大差异，但通过展示在它们之间起作用的共同制度和文化逻辑，将叙述汇集在一起。通过在特定的话语库和制度环境中系统地嵌入分类活动，该项目对我们理解人们如何以特定方式构建世界以及我们对这些表征的政治和经济力量的欣赏做出了重要贡献。在材料层面，为本项目进行的每个案例研究都是PI与一名研究助理密切合作的机会。因此，该项目有助于培训三名研究生，将他们聚集在一起作为一个团队来研究类似的问题，并激发他们对技术、知识和政治之间交叉的兴趣。其次，在分析层面，该项目通过将科学研究中测量和价值的哲学和历史文献与社会学和政治学中处理制度制度和文化表征的跨国差异的大量文献联系起来，弥合了重要的学科鸿沟，从而有助于丰富这两方面的文献。最后，在更形而上的层面上，这个项目促进了对制度、经济和文化基础知识的更好理解，这些知识在许多应用领域都是有用的，包括跨文化心理学、咨询、经济活动和政策。它提请注意分类和测量技术在实现社会秩序的某些愿景以及解释为什么这些愿景中的一些成为政治争论和经济冲突的焦点方面的重要性，就像在所有三个领域中挑选出来进行实证检验的情况一样。

This project funded by the Science, Technology & Society Program examines how different forms of social classification -- from high brow to low brow, from scientific to popular, from state-directed to society-driven -- relate to one another within a particular society, and explains their common origins in the institutional and political make-up that supports them. The PI investigates the existence of national classificatory styles through a detailed analysis of the emergence and development of three debates over classification in America and France: the ranking of wines, the digitization of books and the economic valuation of nature. The unfolding and settlement of these debates in each country are followed, and narratives are drawn together by showing the common institutional and cultural logics at work across them, in spite of their large differences in origin, purpose and function. By systematically embedding classificatory activities in particular discursive repertoires and institutional environments, this project makes an important contribution to our understanding of how people come to construct the world in a particular way, as well as to our appreciation of the political and economic force of these representations. At a material level, each of the case studies undertaken for this project is the occasion for the PI to work closely with one research assistant. The project thus contributes to the training of three graduate students, draws them together as a team working on parallel issues and stimulates their interest in the intersection between technology, knowledge and politics. Second, at the analytical level, the project bridges an important disciplinary gap by connecting the philosophical and historical literature on measurement and value in science studies with the abundant literature in sociology and political science that deals with cross-national variations in institutional systems and cultural representations, thereby contributing to enrich both literatures. Finally, at a more metaphysical level, this project fosters a better understanding of the institutional, economic, and cultural basis of knowledge that could be useful in many applied domains -- including cross-cultural psychology, consulting, economic activity and policy. It draws attention to the importance of technologies of classification and measure in carrying out certain visions of the social order and in explaining why some of these visions become focal points for political contention and economic conflict, as is the case in all three domains singled out for empirical examination.