Personal categorization

In sociology and communication science, personal categorization denotes a central component of interaction that both produces and interprets communicative processes.

According to Harvey Sacks , every member of a social group is automatically sorted into categories . Sacks mentions u. a. the categories of race , gender , occupation .

Structural systematics

Sacks developed a structural system based on empirical studies, which includes the following rules:

1. Inevitability

People are inevitably categorized, i.e. regardless of whether the person feels they belong to this category.

• Example: A young Berliner is addressed by the train attendant on the train ride as a “migrant”, “negro”, “non-German” because of his skin color, although the man feels like “German” because he was born, grew up in Berlin and the has German citizenship.

2. Two-set classes

Every original categorization implies a complementary categorization.

• Example: A long-established Swiss passenger who perceives Berliners as black because of the color of his skin perceives himself as white or non-black and as belonging to a different category at the moment of perception.

3. Normal form expectation

The categories are defined as a general background of knowledge that produces and interprets statements. They structure both speaking (communicative action) and perception (interpretation).

4. Categorizing oneself and others

Categorizing oneself and others have different effects on communicative action and perception.

• Example: The fact that “ negro ” is a colonial term and conveys a history of discrimination for the so-called is the attempt by a group to designate itself, to establish its own self-image in a generally binding manner. In this case, it is common for the foreign term with the N-word to be rejected in its stigmatizing meaning and for the self - designation Afro - Germans or Blacks to attempt to replace knowledge about their group defined by others with one's own point of view.

For the examples see also: Racist knowledge , whiteness

Special areas of application

• ethnology
• Racism research

See also

• Comparative cultural research
• classification
• Discourse , limit symbolism
• Ethnicization , biologism , racialization
• prejudice

literature

• Harvey Sacks (1989): Lecture Six. The MIR membership Categorization Device, in: Harvey Sacks - Lectures 1964-1965. Human Studies, Vol 12
• Harvey Sacks: Hotrodder: A Revolutionary Category, Everyday Language. Studies inEthnomethodology (1979), pp. 7-14
• Harvey Sacks: One the analyzability of Stories by children, in: Gumperz JJ, Hymes, D. (Ed.) New York 1972, pp. 325-245
• Ilona Pache (1994): Ethnic-cultural personal designations. For the categorical organization of discourse and community. In: Siegfried Jäger (ed.): From the workshop: Antirassistische Praxen. Concepts - experiences - research. Duisburg. ISBN 3-927388-45-9