Prologue: why categories matter

Whitehead, Kevin A., Stokoe, Elizabeth ORCID: 0000-0002-7353-4121 and Raymond, Geoffrey (2024) Prologue: why categories matter. In: Categories in Social Interaction. Routledge, Abingdon, UK, 1 - 15. ISBN 9780367637651

Text (Prologue why catagories matter) - Accepted Version Repository staff only until 30 June 2026. Download (612kB)

Abstract

To categorize is human. 1 This book focuses on how, throughout our daily interactions, we categorize ourselves and other people, individuals and groups, unavoidably, in myriad ways. Although categories are implicated in places, spaces, and settings, and events, objects, and actions, the book pays most attention to categories of people. We ubiquitously invoke, describe, and construct such categories; we ascribe and resist them; we imply, infer, and deny them, in the course of doing the actions that comprise our day-to-day lives. Categories and categorizing can be mundane and ordinary; they can be profound and spectacular. Categorization is as ubiquitous as social action because it is a form of social action.

Item Type:	Book Section
Additional Information:	© 2025 The Authors
Divisions:	Psychological and Behavioural Science
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Date Deposited:	23 Jan 2025 11:24
Last Modified:	23 Jan 2025 11:36
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/127032

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