Third-party classification: Exposing likeness between satellites dishes, troll figurines and mass-produced bedspreads in a Romanian local museum
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to foreground the ways in which material objects emerged as a kind of classificatory force during a visit to a local museum in rural Romania. It considers ways in which classification both influences and is influenced by the spatio-temporal assemblages of things.
Design/methodology/approach
Visual and textual ethnographic field data collected to document the museum tour are interpreted using a phenomenological approach. Jane Bennett’s agency of assemblage is used to contextualize these instants of interruption within the space/time arrangements of objects within the museum.
Findings
The “marginal” category of translator commentary emerged during data coding to reveal “instants of interruption.” These instants exhibited classificatory tendencies that revealed relationships between seemingly disparate elements. As such, the translator acted as a kind of third-party classificatory force that illuminated how relationships between physical assemblages of things in the world can act as a force for new knowledge production.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature on social classification and document theory by revealing how alternative approaches to classification can open up additional avenues for research and knowledge discovery.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was generously funded by a Rutgers Graduate School New Brunswick Pre-dissertation Research Award in Spring 2014. The author is also grateful for the insightful comments of the reviewers.
Citation
Klimaszewski, C. (2016), "Third-party classification: Exposing likeness between satellites dishes, troll figurines and mass-produced bedspreads in a Romanian local museum", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 72 No. 1, pp. 156-171. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-02-2015-0030
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited