Emerging Trends: Social Classification
Title
Emerging Trends: Social Classification
Author
Pontikes, Elizabeth G.
Research Area
Class, Status and Power
Topic
Social Stratification
Abstract
Social classification influences how people interpret their surroundings. Classification helps organize people's knowledge and guide how they reason about new objects. Although people perceive classification as reflecting an objective, natural reality, to a large extent, it is constructed through contested social processes. Foundational research on classification focused on this social construction, on how actors conform to social categories, and on the penalties that accrue to actors who do not conform. Recent research has built on and questioned these foundations. Whether categorical boundaries are strong or weak affects how consequential categorization is; in some situations, there are rewards to categorical nonconformity, and for any classification there are multiple audiences with different perspectives on what social categories mean and how they confer value. This entry concludes by suggesting promising new directions for future research in social classification.