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INFO 272. Qualitative Research Methods
Classification Systems
1. Consistent, unique classificatory principles in operation
2. Categories are mutually exclusive
3. System is complete (total coverage of the world it describes)
Kinds of Classification SystemsAristotelian PrototypicalNatural Sciences Experimental Psychology - Rosch
History of Racial Typing
1906 text book -http://www.flickr.com/photos/herzogbr/2228668286/sizes/l/
Phrenology Craniometry Physiognomy
UNESCO “The Race Question”1950, following WWII, a meeting of social scientists:
1. One species2. Likeness is greater than difference3. Variability within is greater than variability between4. “Race” as concentration (due to isolation) of genes
or physical characteristics that nonetheless fluctuate5. No evidence for correlations in intelligence6. No negative biological consequences from ‘race-
mixing’7. ‘race’ as a social myth
Racial Classification in South Africa Under Apartheid
[Pass Book, From Sorting Things Out, pg. 199]
Reclassification and Passing Drop of blood test (in the American
South) Gaining acceptance and repute step-by-
step The appearance of the ideal-type
classification system
Borderlands
Abandoned newborn baby Scrap-metal dealer’s visitor Vik Wilkinson Light-skinned girl born to dark-skinned
‘African’ parents Children with adrenal gland problem Daughter with dormant genetic
expression of black ancestry
Torque
mismatch between classification system and individuals’ biography
trajectory of the classification system pulls and warps the trajectory of biography
Apartheid, in Summary Extreme: An enforced and policed
classification system “classifying individuals into life-
determining boxes, outside of their control, tightly coupled with their every movement…”
Inductive Analysis
Political/ethical justification A general lesson in the difficulty of
coding, categorizing, etc. – remember to account for the ‘borderlands’
Classification in Practice
Mismatch between ‘code’ and data Roth “Hired Hand Research” ‘Bad’ Clinical Records
Looking Towards Thursday Constructing analytic codes and
categories ‘grounded’ in the data Various coding practices