Länkar till verklighet
En arkeologisk studie av ämnesstrukturen i Open Directory Project
The thesis examines the view of reality as expressed in the subject structure of the web directory Open Directory Project. This is analyzed in comparison with library classification systems, regarded as products of the modern library movement. The question is raised whether the world view of the directory, in contrast to the modern classification systems, can be seen as an expression of postmodernity. Postmodernity is then understood as a radical critique of the modern belief in neutral science and technology as ways of objectively describing the universe of knowledge. The theoretical and methodological approach adopted is borrowed from a poststructuralist reading of Michel Foucault's archaeology and sociologically coloured classification research. The basic assumption is that reality is constructed by different conceptual categories that are negotiated in a social process, and that those categories can be studied in texts considered as archeological artefacts. The author argues that the directory can in part be understood as an expression of a postmodern epistemology, in that no natural order is expressed between subjects. On the other hand, the sheer attempt to arrange knowledge in a precoordinated order can be understood as an expression of modernity. Additionally, traces of both modernity and postmodernity can be found in the categories that are created in the catalogue, which leads to the conclusion that modernity and postmodernity cannot be understood as radically different epistemological configurations. The author ends by opening up for a discussion of the possibility of general classification in the context of postmodernity and argues that classificationists should take an active stance in making visible marginalized domains of knowledge.