Developing concept

Administrative Kinds and Identities

When do institutional categories become enduring ways of recognizing people?

An area of inquiry extending questions associated with Ian Hacking’s work into records and institutional decision-making.

Area of inquiry

Administrative categories coordinate many legitimate activities. This research examines the relationship between that usefulness and the identities produced through repeated institutional use.

Questions in development

The project asks how classifications become actionable, how they travel, and how institutional recognition relates to personal and clinical interpretation.

References and further reading

  1. Hacking, Ian. 2006. ‘Making Up People: Clinical Classifications.’ London Review of Books 28 (16).
  2. Bowker, Geoffrey C., and Susan Leigh Star. 1999. Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences. MIT Press.