Scholars Award: Measure for Measure: Social Ontologies of Classification

这个由科学、技术和社会计划资助的项目考察了不同形式的社会分类--从高雅到低俗，从科学到大众，从国家主导到社会驱动--在特定社会中是如何相互联系的，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场争论的产生和发展，考察了国家分类风格的存在：葡萄酒排名、图书数字化和自然的经济价值。对每个国家的这些辩论的展开和解决进行了跟踪，并通过展示贯穿这些国家的共同的制度和文化逻辑将叙事联系在一起，尽管它们的起源、目的和功能存在很大差异。通过系统地嵌入分类活动，特别是论述剧目和体制环境，该项目为我们理解人们如何以特定的方式构建世界以及我们欣赏这些表现形式的政治和经济力量做出了重要贡献。在物质层面上，为该项目进行的每一项案例研究都是国际和平研究所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，形成一个处理平行问题的团队，并激发他们对技术、知识和政治之间的交叉的兴趣。第二，在分析层面，该项目弥合了一个重要的学科鸿沟，将关于科学研究中的计量和价值的哲学和历史文献与社会学和政治学的丰富文献联系起来，这些文献涉及制度体系和文化表现的跨国差异，从而有助于丰富这两种文献。最后，在更形而上学的层面上，这个项目促进了对知识的制度、经济和文化基础的更好理解，这些知识可能在许多应用领域有用--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某些社会秩序愿景方面的重要性，并解释为什么其中一些愿景成为政治斗争和经济冲突的焦点，这在所有三个被挑出来进行实证审查的领域都是如此。

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.