Standards and Their Stories: How Quantifying, Classifying, and Formalizing Practices Shape Everyday Life 978-0801474613, 0801474612

Table of contents :
A Word on Statistics by Wislawa Szymborska......Page 7
Contents......Page 9
Acknowledgments......Page 13
Two Representations of the Seven Deadly Sins: Then and Now......Page 17
1. Reckoning with Standards by Susan Leigh Star and Martha Lampland......Page 19
Standards Where You Least Expect Them by Martha Lampland......Page 41
Padilla Case Changed a Lot in 5 Years. The Trial of the Onetime "Dirty Bomb" Suspect Is Opening; An Alleged Jihad Form May Be Key by Carol J. Williams......Page 42
Penalty for Crossing an Al Qaeda Boss? A Nasty Memo by Sebastian Rotella......Page 43
Separate, Together by Alice Dreger......Page 44
Ellis Island by Susan Leigh Star......Page 49
2. Beyond the Standard Human? by Steven Epstein......Page 51
The Range of Growth Parameters for Healthy Infants......Page 71
Portion Creep: Standards and Supersizing by Judith Treas......Page 72
A Bulge in Misses 8? Digital Scanners Resize America by Marcia Biederman......Page 74
Investment Allocation by Age by Judith Treas......Page 79
3. Age in Standards and Standards for Age: Institutionalizing Chronological Age as Biographical Necessity by Judith Treas......Page 81
Coffins Expand with Occupants......Page 105
Rebuilding Wall Street: Accountants, in a Reversal, Say Costs from the Attack Aren't "Extraordinary" by Steve Liesman......Page 107
4. Double Standards: The History of Standardizing Humans in Modern Life Insurance by Martin Lengwiler......Page 111
The Pernicious Accretion of Codes, Standards, and Dates: The People of the State of California v. Vernell Gillard by Martha Lampland......Page 131
Standards without Infrastructure by Elizabeth Cullen Dunn......Page 134
5. Classifying Laborers: Instinct, Property, and the Psychology of Productivity in Hungary (1920-1956) by Martha Lampland......Page 139
EPA to Kill New Arsenic Standards: Whitman Cites Debate on Drinking Water Risk......Page 159
Arsenic and Water Don't Mix......Page 162
EPA Wants Review of Sulfur Standards Whitman Postpones Clinton Rule Requiring Clean-Burning Diesel Fuel......Page 163
6. Metadata Standards: Trajectories and Enactment in the Life of an Ontology by Florence Millerand and Geoffrey C. Bowker......Page 165
Horse's Ass......Page 183
To Avoid Fuel Limits, Subaru Is Turning a Sedan into a Truck by Danny Hakim......Page 185
Flexibility Urged against Pollution by Eric Pianin......Page 189
U.S. Walks Away from Treaty on Greenhouse Gases: White House Wants Developing Nations to Meet Standards as Well......Page 191
7. ASCII Imperialism by Daniel Pargman and Jacob Palme......Page 193
Bananas, Eu rocrats, and Modern Myths: Standards between Power and Agreement by Martin Lengwiler......Page 217
Chocolate Directive Now Agreed......Page 220
Standards Proliferate Even for (Seemingly) Simple Objects......Page 222
Appendix: How to Unravel Standards: Teaching Infrastructure Studies by Martha Lampland and Susan Leigh Star......Page 223
References......Page 231
Contributors......Page 251
Index......Page 253

Citation preview

STANDAROS AND THEIR STORIES

STANDARDS AND THEIR STORIES

HOW QUAN TIFYING, CLASSIFYING, AND FORMA LIZING PRACTICES SHAPE EVERYDAY LIFE

Edited by Martha Lampland and Susan Leigh Star

Cornell University Press Ithaca & London

Copyright

�) 2009

by Cornell University

All rights re.served. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof: must not he n.�proJucerm without permission in writing from the publisher. hir information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2009 by Cornell University Press First printing, Cornell l'aperbacb, 2009

Printed in the United States of America

!.ibmry ofCongress Ciitaloging-in-Publication Data Standards and their stories: how quantifying, classifying, and formalizing practices shape everyday life

I

edited by Martha Lamplaml and Susan Leigh Star. p. Lill.

Includes bibliographical rdcrences and index. ISBN 97 8-0-8014-4717-4 (cloth: alk. paper)- ISBN 978-0-8014-7461-.3 (pbk.: alk. paper)

I.

Standardization-Social aspects.

aspects.

2. Standards-Social aspects.

4. Cla.s.sification-Social aspects.

3.

Measurement-Social

I. I.ampland, Martha, 1952-

[I. Star, Susan Leigh,

1954-

11 D62.S785

2009

389'.6-dc22

200802%75

Cornell Univcr\ity Prc.">s strives to use cnvironmcnrally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its hooks. Such materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC: inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. !'or further information, visit our website at www.corncllpress.cornell.edu.

Cloth priming

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 .3 2

Paperback printing

I0

9 8 7 6 5 4

3

2

For those who labor long and hard to craft good and just standards, as well as for those who have suffered from their absence. On the one hand, the fight against the tyranny of structurelessness. On the other, the fallacy of one size fits all.

A WORD ON STATISTICS Wislawa Szymborska translatedftom the Polish by Joanna Trzeciak

Out of every h undred people, those who always know bener: fifty- two. Unsure of every step: almost all the rest. Ready to help, if it doesn't take long: forty-nine. Always good, because they cannot be otherwise: four-well, maybe five. Able to admire without envy: eighteen. Led to error by youth (which passes): sixty, plus or minus. Those not to be messed with: four-and-forty. Living i n constant fear of someone or something: seventy-seven . Capable o f happiness: twenty-some-odd at most.

viii

•

A Word on Statistics

Harmless alone, turning savage in crowds: more than half, for sure. Cruel when forced hy circumstances: it's better not to know, not even approximately. W isc in hindsight: not many more than wise in fores ight. Getting noth ing our of l i fe except things: thirty (though I would like to he wrong). Balled up in pain and without a flashlight in the d ark: eighry-rhree, sooner or later. Those who are j us t: quite a few, thirty-five. But if it rakes effort to understand: three. Worthy of empathy: ninety-n ine. Morral: one h undred o ur of one hundred� a figure that has never varied yet.

CON TENTS

Acknowledgments

XIII

• Two Representations of the Seven Deadly Sins: Then and Now

3

I . Reckoning with Standards

Susan Leigh Star and Martha lamp/and • Standards Where You Least Expect Them

25

Padilla Case Changed a Lot in S Years T he Trial of the Onetime "Dirty Bomb" Suspect Is Opening; An Alleged Jihad Form May Be Key

26

Penalty for Crossing an Al Qaeda Boss? A Nasty Memo

27

• Separate.Together • Ellis Island

28

33

2. Beyond the Standard Human?

35

Steven Epstein • The Range of Growth Parameters for Healthy Infants • Portion Creep: Standards and Supers1zing

• A Bulge in Misses 8? Digital Scanners Resize America • Investment Allocation by Age

55

56 58

63

ix

x

•

Contents

3. Age in Standards and Standards for Age: Institutionalizing Chronological Age as Biographical Necessity

65

Judith Treas 89

• Coffins Expand with Occupants

• Rebuilding Wall Street: Accountants, in a Reversal, Say Costs from the Attack Aren't "Extraordinary''

91

4. Double Standards:T he History of Standardizing Humans 95

in Modern Life Insurance

Martin Lengwi!er • T he Pern1c1ous Accretion of Codes, Standards, and Dates:

of Cal1forn1a

• Standards

v.

Vernell Gillard

w ith o ut

The People of the State

I I5

Infrastructure

I 18

5. Classifying Laborers: Instinct, Property, and the Psychology of Productivity in Hungary ( 1920-1956)

123

Martha Lamp!and • EPA to Kill New Arsenic Standards: Whitman Cites Debate on Drinking Water Risk

14 3

• Arsenic and Water Don't Mix

146

• EPA Wants Review of Sulfur Standards: Whitman Postpones Clinton Rule Requiring Clean-Burning Diesel Fuel

14 7

6. Metadata Standards:Trajectories and Enactment in the Life of an Ontology

14 9

Florence Mi!!errmd and Geoffrey C. Bowker • Horse's Ass

167

• To Avoid Fuel Limits, Subaru Is Turning a Sedan into a Truck • Flexibility Urged against Pollution

169

173

• U.S. Walks Away from Treaty on Greenhouse Gases: White House Wants Developing Nations t o Meet Standards as Well

175

Contents

7. ASCII Imperialism

•

177

Daniel Pargman andJacob Palme • Bananas, Eurocrats, and Modern Myths: Standards between Power and Agreement

20 I

• Chocolate Directive Now Agreed

204

• Standards Proliferate Even for (Seemingly) Simple Objects

206

Appendix How to Unravel Standards: Teaching Infrastructure Studies

Martha Lampland and Susan Leigh Star References

2 I5

Contributors Index

237

235

207

xi

ACKN OWLEDGMEN TS

• Two groups of people helped us create this book. The first was a faculty re­

search study seminar at the University of California Humanities Research Insti­

tute, convened by the editors of this volume. We spent a term together considering "Historical and Interpretive Approaches to Standardization, Quantification and Formal Representation." The staff at the institute and David Theo Goldberg, its director, were wonderfully helpful. The attendees were Rogers Hall, Judith Treas, Geoffrey Bowker, Martin Lengweiler, L. K. (Mimi) Saunders, Theodore Porter, Janice Neri, Jean Lave, and ourselves. Important guests of the seminar were Kath­ leen Casey, Helen Verran, and Ole Dreier. The second group of people were our students in a co-taught seminar, "Standardization and Quantification," in the Sci­ ence Studies Program at the University of California, San Diego: Ray-Shyng Chou, Sophia Efstathiou, Michael Evans, Carmel Finley, Laura Harkewicz, Lyn Headley, Brian Lindseth, Steven Luis, Eric Martin, Evelyn Range, Jesse Rich­ mond, Tom Waidzunas, Kevin Walsh, and Alper Yalcinkaya. The work and leader­ ship of Lawrence Busch, director of the Institute for Food and Agricultural Standards, Michigan State University, has provided continuing inspiration. Fi­ nally, we owe our editor, Peter W issoker, a particular debt of thanks for under­ standing how the narratives surrounding standards are crucially important at this historical moment.

xiii

STANDARDS AND THEIR STORIES

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