Objectification and standardization : on the limits and effects of ritually fixing and measuring life / edited by Tord Larsen, Michael Blim, Theodore M. Porter, Kalpana Ram, Nigel Rapport.
Introduction / Tord Larsen. "First I turn myself into an object; then I turn myself into a work of art" : objectifying and ritualizing contemporary life / Michael Blim -- Sacralizing finance, sacrificing society / Emil A. Royrvik -- Falling in the shadow of relations? Money and the fetishism of relations : belief, speculation and modes of decision-making / Tian Sørhaug -- Asylum-age numbers : the hopeless push to census the insane / Theodore M. Porter -- Paper trails and procedures in child welfare services : a cultural logic in a professional context / Petter Almklov, Jens Røyrvik and Gro Ulset -- The mutating mediatization of pandemics / Charles L. Briggs -- From grandmother's kitchen to festivals and professional chef : the standardization and ritualization of Arab food in Argentina / Lorenzo Cañás Bottos and Tanja Plasil -- The magic of "mudrās" and performance as "loving play" : the limits placed on intellectualism and rationalizing reforms by the performing arts of India / Kalpana Ram -- Enumeration and generalization, and knowing through love : the case of Stanley Spencer's artistry / Nigel Rapport -- From "wuh wuh" to "hoo-hoo" and the rituals of representing bird song, 1885-1925 / Alexandra Hui -- Archives and cultural legibility : objects and subjects of neoliberal heritage technologies / Rosemary J. Coombe and Eugenia Kisin -- Space, territory and the ritualized reification and standardized measure of nation and nature : the case of a Swedish children's story, Konrad Lorenz and "super" nationalism / Kenneth R. Olwig -- "First I turn myself into an object; then I turn myself into a work of art" : objectifying and ritualizing contemporary life / Tord Larsen.
Summary:
"Modes of objectification-different ways of producing and quantifying entities through categories and classes-are part of the cultural infrastructure of any society and any epoch. But we are now in an era that displays a passion for objectification and quantification unparalleled since the beginning of statistics. This volume identifies the most prominent contemporary forms of objectification: in the arts, medicine, finance, identity management, the rhetoric of science as well as the everyday. Different chapters show how these modes of objectification, measurement, and standardization shape the main dimensions of social life: meaning and representation, morality, and notions of thinghood and personhood. Moreover, quantification, measurement, and standardization are not simply ways of organizing pre-given entities. Rather, they are performative and generative technologies which create institutional objects, give rise to forms of objectivity and carry with them a range of normativities. Hence, the chapters also elaborate on the enduring link between forms of objectification and ritualism. At times, objectification is accomplished and fortified by ritualization. But ritual may also help disrupt the objectified, quantified world which meets resistance in the encounter with the actual fuzziness, flux, and capaciousness of reality. While the volume highlights the growing objectification and standardization of social life on the one hand, on the other it describes resistance to this trend"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.