Critical classification

Critical classification is classification that has an explicit critical attitude towards certain religious, ideological or political aspects in established classification systems to which they form an alternative.

The term "critical classification" may impose the idea that traditional classification systems are "neutral", that they do not reflect an ideology. This is, however, wrong. All knowledge organization systems (KOS) will always reflect some theories, points of view, ideologies and so on at the expense of other views and interests. This has in particular been demonstrated by social constructivist research in KOS (cf., Frohmann, 1994).

Critical research may uncover the ideological bias in KOS. Ørom (2003) is an analysis of the ideological view on Arts in major classification systems. Gerhart (2004) and Introna & Nissenbaum (2000) represent critical studies of ideological bias in Internet search engines.

The major division is thus not between "critical" versus "non-critical" KOS, but between KOS that are based on explicit values and those that are just based on implicit values.

Literature:

Bruhns, S. & Heyerdahl-Jensen, I. (1989). Kritisk klassifikation. IN: Orden i papirerne - en hilsen til J. B. Friis Hansen. Redigeret af Ole Harbo og Leif Kajberg. København: Danmarks Biblioteksskole. (Pp. 167-174).
 

Foskett, A. C. (1984). Better dead than read: further studies in critical classification. Library Resources & Technical Services, 28(4), 346-359.
 

Foskett, A. C. (1971). Misogynists all; a study in critical classification. Library Resources & Technical Services, 15(2), 117-12­1.
 

Frohmann, B. (1994). The Social Construction of Knowledge Organization: The Case of Melvin Dewey. Advances in Knowledge Organization, 4, 109-117.

Gerhart, S. (2004). Do Web search engines suppress controversy? First Monday, 9(1), http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_1/gerhart/index.html

Introna, L. & H. Nissenbaum, H. (2000). Shaping the Web: Why the Politics of Search Engines Matters. The Information Society, 16(3), pp. 1-17 . Available at: http://www.nyu.edu/projects/nissenbaum/papers/searchengines.pdf
 

Wilson, A. (1992). The Hierarchy of Belief: ideological tendentiousness in universal classification. Pp. 389-397 IN: Williamson, N. J. & M. Hudson (eds.): Classification Research for Knowledge Representation and Organization. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers B. V. (FID 698).
 

Ørom, A. (2003). Knowledge Organization in the domain of Art Studies - History, Transition and Conceptual Changes. Knowledge Organization, 30(3/4), 128-143.

See also: Alternative literature;  Ideology; Classification (Lifeboat for KO); Critique in Knowledge Organization

Birger Hjørland

Last edited: 20-01-2007

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Nothing If Not Critical: Selected Essays on Art and Artists
by Robert Hughes.