Classify and Label

Classifications and labels change, sustain, and marginalize individuals, social groups, and social practices. Classify and Label: The Unintended Marginalization of Social Groups is a philosophical treatment of classification in the social sciences and everyday life, focusing on its moral, social, and political implications. Using labels for themselves and for others is essential to how people navigate and understand the world. Classifications and labels also have a dark side. When we classify people, we may unintentionally misrepresent who they are or what they do. These misrepresentations disrupt how people think about themselves and how they treat others, sometimes leading to the marginalization of entire groups of people. This book analyzes classification by considering rich case studies across a variety of domains, including the classification of gender and sexual orientation, the psychiatric classification of sadomasochism and gender disorders, and the classification of people in everyday life through the production of pornography and use of gender identities. This broad sample allows us to see deep connections between the classifications proposed by social scientists and the things people do on the sidewalk, in the office, or in the classroom. Matt L. Drabek's account of classification provides us with a way to see as connected such seemingly disconnected issues in the philosophy of the social sciences and feminist philosophy as the situation of under-represented groups in academia, new models of parenting and the family, the nature of sexual orientation, and the nature of scientific bias.