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