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7
What a Difference a Name Makesthe Classification of Nursing Work |
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It's not always suitable to view work as production of i information.
(Bjerknes and Bratteteig 1987a, 323) |
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Introduction: How Work Classifies and Classification Works |
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To this point, the book has looked largely at the classification of diseases, patients, and of raceentities that are often (highly problematically, as we have seen) claimed to be natural kinds. This chapter and the next are concerned with entities generally seen as social kindsunits of nursing work.
35 Work classification systems are central to the management of a wide range of enterprises: and, we argue, their development is a contested site of great political significance. |
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Large information systems such as the Internet or global databases carry with them a politics of voice and value that is often invisible, embedded in layers of infrastructure. The "politics of artifacts" of a nuclear bomb or a genetically reengineered organism are more available for public debate then those of information interchange protocols or how insurance data are encoded. Yet these latter decisions and standards may affect markets, differential benefits from particular technologies, and the visibility of constituencies, among other important public goods (Kindleberger 1983). They are important in organizing work, and they are often used explicitly as vehicles for professional and organizational transformation, via accounting and legitimization processes. They appear, as parts of accounting schemes, in technologies of organizational change such as business process reengineering and total quality management; in addition to recordkeeping and accounts, they also classify people and their importance in organizations. |
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For several years we have been investigating this quiet politics of voice, work, and values in information infrastructure, seeking to clarify |
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