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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 of information infrastructures.In Sorting Things Out, Geoffrey Bowker and Susan Leigh Star explore the role of categories and standards in shaping the modern world. In a clear and lively style, they investigate a variety of classification systems, including the International Classification of Diseases, the Nursing Interventions Classification, race classification under apartheid in South Africa, and the classification of viruses and of tuberculosis. Sorting Things Out has a moral agenda, for each standard and category valorizes some point of view and silences another. Standards and classifications produce advantage or suffering. Jobs are made and lost; some regions benefit at the expense of others. How these choices are made and how we think about that process are at the moral and political core of this work. The book is an important empirical source for understanding the building of information infrastructures.Amazon.com Review
Is this book sociology, anthropology, or taxonomy?SortingThings Out, by communications theorists Geoffrey C. Bowker andSusan Leigh Star, covers a lot of conceptual ground in its effort tosort out exactly how and why we classify and categorize the things andconcepts we encounter day to day.But the analysis doesn't stopthere; the authors go on to explore what happens to our thinking as aresult of our classifications. With great insight and precise academiclanguage, they pick apart our information systems and languagestructures that lie deeper than the everyday categories we use.Theauthors focus first on the International Classification of Diseases(ICD), a widely used scheme used by health professionals worldwide,but also look at other health information systems, racialclassifications used by South Africa during apartheid, and more.

Though it comes off as a bit too academic at times (by the end of the20th century, most writers should be able to get the spelling ofMcDonald's restaurant right), the book has a clever charm thatthoughtful readers will surely appreciate.A sly sense of humorsneaks into the writing, giving rise to the chapter title "TheKindness of Strangers," for example.After arguing thatcategorization is both strongly influenced by and a powerfulreinforcer of ideology, it follows that revolutions (political orscientific) must change the way things are sorted in order to throwover the old system.Who knew that such simple, basic elements ofthought could have such far-reaching consequences?Whether youultimately place it with social science, linguistics, or (as theauthors fear) fantasy, make sure you put Sorting Things Out inyour reading pile. --Rob Lightner ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Dry and overreaching
This is a quintessentially academic book: Much of the subject matter is absolutely fascinating, particularly the chapter on the fraught process of distinguishing black from white in South Africa under apartheid, where many fell into a mixed-race purgatory unrecognized by the state apparatus; yet most of the authors' analysis is less interesting than they presume. They ask the right questions about the problematic nature of categories, but provide few answers, instead falling back to arching assertions such as "all category systems are moral and political entities," a statement that is so plainly false that the authors don't even bother to justify it.

I would recommend the apartheid section of this book to anyone interested in that chapter of history, but the other examples the authors use (the ICD and the DSMIV) have been explored elsewhere to greater effect.

A real advance in knowledge - inspiring.
Most everything in modern societies rests on rules, standards, and regulations of one kind or another. Where do these endless detailed lists and definitions come from? This book is really unprecedented in the way it takes apart the practice of rule-making and nomenclature, to show us that there is a social and cultural process that lies behind the faceless lists. For me, it was like having the curtain of OZ lifted aside, so I could see for once the messy, petty, and often political way that things are sorted into categories and labeled.

I disagee that the book is badly written. I found it better than the average academic title in studies of technology and society, where thick jargon is the primordial soup. This was one of the most original books about technological systems I have read in years, with wide application in many different fields.

A diamond-studded dungheap
This tragic book is full of important ideas and significant research, but it's so poorly written you hardly notice. Other reviews kindly describe its style as "academic," but it's just bad writing. It's really shocking that publishers still consider this kind of jargon-filled nonsense acceptable to publish outside of the UMI thesis-reprint circuit. (I write professionally, so I'm not unqualified to make this assertion.)

After making a cogent point with examples and internal references, the authors feel the need to bridge to the next section with this clotted delight:

"Leaking out of the freeze frame, comes the insertion of biography, negotiation, and struggles with a shifting infrastructure of classification and treatment. Turning now to other presentation and classification of tuberculosis by a novelist and a sociologist, we will see the complex dialectic of irrevocably local biography and of standard classification."

Wha? What you mean to say is:

"This tension between personal experience and clinical priorities plays a large part in our current understanding of 'tuberculosis.' To further examine this tension, we will now examine the personal tuberculosis stories of a novelist and a sociologist."

The former kind of self-important, get-it-all-down academic writing is as embarrassing to read as adolescent poetry; they're both driven by a desire to make sure the reader gets every last nuance, and the lack of subtlety makes you want to toss the book across the room.

But the ideas buried within this book...the ideas are so sweet. If only they'd had the sense to ghostwrite this book. It could be a classic.

classification as discourse
This is an excellent book on classification as discourse.The authors do an excellent job of discussing this topic in terms of its social, political, and professional history and implications. It is an importanttitle in the cultural studies of information and should be familiar to allconcerned with this area of study. ... Read more

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Great Book
Loved it.Sad to research and find out that Nancy Walker is no longer alive.I wanted to call and thank her for writing this.

There IS a difference.
Why is the class clown usually a boy? Why does everyone laugh when guys tell fart and booger jokes, but if a woman tells the same jokes, the jokes fall flat? Why do women value a sense of humor in a man, but men rarely mention it as important in their ideal woman? Imagine a woman writing a Dave Barry-style column--it wouldn't work. There IS a difference. Nancy Walker's book really connected with me. I learned about women humorists writing at the same time Mark Twain was, about the minority aspects of humor, and why women are reluctant to appear funny to men, but not to each other. For a scholarly book, this was a fun (and funny) read. ... Read more

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In the history of anthropological theory, the rise and fall of the notion of structure is certainly one of the mose important to note. In this book, this development is traced and held against an understanding of ethnographic practice. The book intently starts with two ethnographic examples that serve as a backup for testing theoretical notions. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

product is fine, but lucky it didn't get ruined.
Amazon you need to be more careful packaging breakables with books. This book was a gift and you packed it with a bottle that broke & was leaking. Luckily the book was spared! Be more careful packaging.

Here are some of the inexplicably missing capsule reviews -
"Vigen Gurorian's courageous and discerning vision illuminates both current issues of burning importance (campus promiscuity, nationalism, and gay marriage, for example), and major Christian thinkers of the recent past (Chesterton, O'Connor, and Kirk). This compendium is a resource that will help us all see more clearly."
-- Frederica Mathewes-Green, columnist for Beliefnet.com and author of The Illumined Heart: The Ancient Christian Path of Transformation

"Guroian is a rare and precious bird these days: a scholar of the Real. Here he focuses his moral passion and theologian's mind on some of today's most smoldering issues."
-- Kevin Ryan, Professor Emeritus, Boston University

"These eloquent and wide-ranging essays in the moral imagination establish Vigen Guroian as our own Chesterton. For with fine Chestertonian wit, he demonstrates that the modern West is not heinously wicked so much as it is wildly virtuous, as the old Christian virtues, uprooted from their native theological soil, continue to produce mad sprouts. Responding astringently to the cultural and religious vexations of our age, Guroian restores these saving virtues to the deep loam of Christian tradition."
-- Ralph Wood, University Professor of Theology and Literature, Baylor University

"Rallying the Really Human Things does not so much inform as remind. Vigen Guroian has busied himself with one of the most pressing tasks in our intellectual life, which is to rescue the dignified word "humanism" from the damage wrought upon it by both the secularly self-sufficient and the piously ignorant."
-- Tracy Lee Simmons, author of Climbing Parnassus: A New Apologia for Greek and Latin

"Professor Guroian's book is both a powerful and provocative defense of traditional Christian humanism in its conflict with secularism."
-- Bob Cheeks, intellectualconservative.com

"Of course, this review hasn't even mentioned excellent essays on 'gay marriage' and why businessmen 'should read great literture.' There are myriad positions in his pages I would like to sound with trumpets on one hand and anathematize on the other. Like Chesterton, Guroian can write infuriating passages, but never dull ones."
-- David Paul Deavel, Gilbert Magazine ... Read more

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Things Irish provides the reader with an entertaining and informative view of Ireland. The book uses short descriptive passages on anything from whiskey to standing stones, from May Day to hurling to give a feeling for Irish life. The reader is free to roam from topic to topic, discovering a wealth of new and surprising facts about 'things Irish'. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Things Irish
I bought this book to prepare for my first trip to Ireland and it saved me. It covered everything from what to expect from the locals to the appropriate time to wait before drinking a freshly poured pint. Thank you. I bought a lot of books and this is the only I needed. ... Read more

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"The Value of Things" argues that society's priorities, its notions of value, are still informed by our relationship with physical objects, even though we have entered an age characterized by technological abstraction. The book examines how modern life is saturated with and defined by things, as the need to acquire, exchange and display objects is intensified by consumerism. Authors Neil Cummings and Marysia Lewandowska use a provocative mix of text and photography to describe the way in which two institutions, the department store and the museum, are central to the story of society's access to material things. ... Read more

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Imagination in Theory focuses on Michèle Barrett's long-standing interest in cultural questions and shows how it informs her analysis of current developments in social and feminist theory. Taking culture, theory, and writing as its themes, the book "translates" across the barriers between the humanities and social sciences, raising a number of important-and controversial-issues.

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Using England as a case study, this book examines why the law has become the dominant means of preserving archaeological heritage, and how the process works. It explores the relationship between the law and archaeology, providing a basis for international comparison of systems of preservation law. Challenging the popular assumption that preservation law is simply a matter of pragmatics, the author shows that the corpus of "heritage" laws covering the cultural and natural environment operates as an important vector of moral and cultural change. By investigating the origins and historical development of English heritage laws during and since the 19th century, the book traces the effect of these laws on the development of archaeology. In particular, the work studies the operation of contemporary law on archaeological and natural material. It locates the emergence of the idea of preservation in its wider social, political and disciplinary contexts. It also demonstrates the extent to which such law encouraged and contributed to the development of archaeology as a discipline, and how it arose out of specific historical circumstances.Finally, the book reveals the three-stage process of valuation which operates today in all branches of preservation law. ... Read more

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Organizational culture is an intangible, yet it can be as pervasive and valuable as any other company asset. Culture influences the dynamics within teams and between individuals, the way business is conducted with suppliers, the public face of the company that customers see, and every other human interaction that takes place inside and outside a business.

While cultural norms are inherently neither good nor bad, they do sometimes outlast their usefulness to the organization. As markets, the economy and the broader society change, Smart organizations have to rethink their goals and their methods if they are to survive.

Donna Deeprose gives you the inside track into understanding the culture and subcultures in your own organization. In Smart Things to Know About Culture she shows how cultural values work, and how best to turn them to your personal and organizational advantage:

What exactly is corporate culture? How and why do people behave they way they do?

What are the values and beliefs that drive behaviour and give rise to other culture expressions?

What are the many ways culture is expressed, including management practices, employee behaviors, communication, celebrations, stories and architecture?

Why does culture matter? What is its impact on you and the organization?

How do you create your own culture of success and seek out better cultures?

How do you go about fixing a dysfunctional culture (without even really trying)? Are you a change agent?

Whether you are a leader (or aspiring leader), manager or individual contributor, the culture of your organisation will affect your career. Smart Things to Know About Culture will give you the tools to understand how you can turn this knowledge into action and power. Watch your company and your career take off!

SMART ANSWERES TO TOUGH QUESTIONS:

Q: If culture is resistant to change, why is it that no company seems to have the same culture it did 10 to 20 years ago?

A: Its a paradox. But while everyone agrees thats its hard to purposely change an oraganizational culture, the truth is that cultures are changing all the time, both through evolution and in reaction to cataclysmic events. ... Read more

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This book is a collection of eleven essays, each analyzing forms of gift-giving, exchange, or ritual use of objects in the culture of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Australia. Objects exchanged in these societies have the capacity to mediate individual relationships, and perceived spiritual relationships by projecting what cannot be adequately communicated or expressed onto a more tangible form.

Shell currency, animals, plants, sacred drinks, even enemy heads and imaginary goods serve as cultural objects in these essays. Objects are exchanged for compensation for services rendered, for women received in marriage, for reservation as spiritual relics, or for ceremonial gifts. Exchanged objects may be perceived as received from a god or presented as an offering to spirits of the dead. In every case the object acts as a cultural signifier of the relationships that exist between different entities in society. ... Read more

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For over fifty years, the Japanese-born Western-trained author of this remarkable volume devoted himself to explaining Japanese traditions and customs to foreigners through his newspaper columns, talks and four short books. The all-embracing work presented here, drawn from all these sources including revised and rearranged versions of the books, deals with all aspects of Japanese life and material culture -- apparel and utensils; cures and medicines; houses and buildings; fetes and festivals; fish, birds and animals; folk tales; food, sake and tobacco; living habits; marriage, funerals and memorials; natural phenomena; plants and flowers; popular beliefs and traditions; recreation and entertainment; religious rites and social customs. With over seven hundred and thirty separate entries, this unique volume is the definitive work on all Japanese things.

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The Ma' Betisek are a group of aborigines who live on the mangrove coastal area of Selangor in peninsular Malaysia. Dr Karim's study is mainly focused on the Ma' Betisek communities on Carey Island, off the west coast of Selangor and in particular three villages - Sungei Sialang, Sungei Mata and Sungei Bumbun. Few changes have taken place in the lives of the Betisek people on the island since 1975. On the mainland, the Ma' Betisek are busy keeping pace with development and modem life. However, despite increasing deforestation and new urban influences on the island, the Carey Island communities continue to preserve their naturistic ideas of how humans should live with plants and animals. Dr Karim's research focuses on this issue. ... Read more

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The Ma' Betisek are a group of aborigines who live on the mangrove coastal area of Selangor in peninsular Malaysia. Dr Karim's study is mainly focused on the Ma' Betisek communities on Carey Island, off the west coast of Selangor and in particular three villages - Sungei Sialang, Sungei Mata and Sungei Bumbun. Few changes have taken place in the lives of the Betisek people on the island since 1975. On the mainland, the Ma' Betisek are busy keeping pace with development and modem life. However, despite increasing deforestation and new urban influences on the island, the Carey Island communities continue to preserve their naturistic ideas of how humans should live with plants and animals. Dr Karim's research focuses on this issue. ... Read more

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Living with Things provides an account of consumption in terms of its centrality to our dwelling practices. Its focus is on the home, particularly on the movement of people and things within and through it in everyday habitation.Here dwelling is seen as an activity, as doing things with and to the things to hand around us. Being 'at home' is achieved through living amongst things, as well as amongst people and other non-human presences, such as pets and gardens. Being at home is achieved through what we do with objects, the things that are acquired and stored, that linger around in our homes, sometimes for decades, and which we may eventually get rid of. These ordinary things make dwelling structures accommodating accommodations; they make them homes.Based primarily on a former coal-mining village in North-east England, this book explores practices of inhabitation, from moving in or being modernised, to the daily accommodation of sleep and children. It provides a demonstration of what happens to consumption research when it 'comes home' and is positioned not in sites of exchange but within the home and in households. ... Read more

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The United States at the turn of the twentieth century cultivated a passion for big. It witnessed the emergence of large-scale corporate capitalism; the beginnings of American imperialism on a global stage; record-level immigration; a rapid expansion of cities; and colossal events and structures like world's fairs, amusement parks, department stores, and skyscrapers. Size began to play a key role in American identity. During this period, bigness signaled American progress.

These Days of Large Things explores the centrality of size to American culture and national identity and the preoccupation with physical stature that pervaded American thought. Clarke examines the role that body size played in racial theory and the ways in which economic changes in the nation generated conflicting attitudes toward growth and bigness. Finally, Clarke investigates the relationship between stature and gender.

These Days of Large Things brings together a remarkable range of cultural material including scientific studies, photographs, novels, cartoons, architecture, and film. As a general cultural and intellectual history of the period, this work will be of interest to students and scholars in American studies, U.S. history, American literature, and gender studies.

Michael Tavel Clarke is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Calgary.

Cover photograph: "New York from Its Pinnacles," Alvin Langdon Coburn (1912). Courtesy of the George Eastman House.

"A fascinating study of the American preoccupation with physical size, this book charts new paths in the history of science, culture, and the body. A must-read for anyone puzzling over why Americans today love hulking SUVs, Mcmansions, and outsized masculine bodies."
---Lois Banner, University of Southern California

"From the Gilded Age through the Twenties, Clarke shows a nation-state obsessed with sheer size, ranging from the mammoth labor union to the 'Giant Incorporated Body' of the monopoly trust. These Days of Large Things links the towering Gibson Girl with the skyscraper, the pediatric regimen with stereotypes of the Jew. Spanning anthropology, medicine, architecture, business, and labor history, Clarke provides the full anatomy of imperial America and offers a model of cultural studies at its very best."
---Cecelia Tichi, Vanderbilt University