Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2019
Publication Title
Canadian Journal of Communication
Publication Title
Canadian Journal of Communication
Volume
44
Issue
3
Abstract
Background; This article explores the results of a three-year ethnographic study of how semiotic infrastructures-or digital standards and frameworks such as taxonomies, schemas, and ontologies that encode the meaning of data-are designed. Analysis: It examines debates over best practices in semiotic infrastructure design, such as how much complexity adopted languages should characterize versus how restrictive they should be. It also discusses political and pragmatic considerations that impact what and how information is represented in an information system. Conclusion and implications: This article suggests that all databased representations are forms of data power, and that examining semiotic infrastructure design provides insight into how culturally informed conceptions of difference structure how we access knowledge about our social and material worlds.
First Page
361
Last Page
371
Recommended Citation
Poirier, Lindsay, "Classification as Catachresis: Double Binds of Representing Difference with Semiotic Infrastructure" (2019). Statistical and Data Sciences: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/sds_facpubs/58
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.22230/cjc.2019v44n3a3455
Comments
Archived as published.