An Ecology of Social Categories

Pontikes, E.G.; Hannan, M.T.

doi:10.15195/v1.a20

An Ecology of Social Categories

Pontikes, E.G.; Hannan, M.T.

Authors

E.G. Pontikes

M.T. Hannan

Abstract

This article proposes that meaningful social classification emerges from an ecological dynamic that operates in two planes: feature space and label space. It takes a dynamic view of classification, allowing objects’ movements in both spaces to change the meaning of social categories. The first part of the theory argues that agents assign labels to objects based on perceptions of their similarities to existing members of a category. The second part of the theory shows that an object’s perceived similarity to members of other categories reduces its typicality in a focal category. This means that for categories with a high degree of overlap with other categories in label space (lenient categories), the link between feature-based similarities and labeling weakens. The findings suggest that social classification will likely evolve to contain both constraining and lenient categories. The theory implies that this process is self-reinforcing, so that constraining categories become more constraining, whereas lenient categories become more lenient.

Citation

Pontikes, E., & Hannan, M. (2014). An Ecology of Social Categories. Sociological Science, 1, 311-343. https://doi.org/10.15195/v1.a20

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	May 28, 2014
Online Publication Date	Jul 18, 2014
Publication Date	Aug 18, 2014
Deposit Date	Jul 20, 2015
Publicly Available Date	Jul 29, 2015
Journal	Sociological Science
Print ISSN	2330-6696
Publisher	Society for Sociological Science
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	1
Pages	311-343
DOI	https://doi.org/10.15195/v1.a20
Keywords	Categories, Features, Labels, Leniency, Patents, Software.
Public URL	https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1404813

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
© 2014 Pontikes and Hannan. This open-access article has been published and distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License, which allows unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction, in any form, as long as the original author and source have been credited.