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Gender As An University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations May 2015 Gender as an 'Interplay of Rules': Detecting Epistemic Interplay of Medical and Legal Discourse with Sex and Gender Classification in Four Editions of the Dewey Decimal Classification Melodie J. Fox University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the Epistemology Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, and the Library and Information Science Commons Recommended Citation Fox, Melodie J., "Gender as an 'Interplay of Rules': Detecting Epistemic Interplay of Medical and Legal Discourse with Sex and Gender Classification in Four Editions of the Dewey Decimal Classification" (2015). Theses and Dissertations. 872. https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/872 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by UWM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UWM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. GENDER AS AN ‘INTERPLAY OF RULES’: DETECTING EPISTEMIC INTERPLAY OF MEDICAL AND LEGAL DISCOURSE WITH SEX AND GENDER CLASSIFICATION IN FOUR EDITIONS OF THE DEWEY DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION by Melodie J. Fox Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Information Studies at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee May 2015 ABSTRACT GENDER AS AN ‘INTERPLAY OF RULES’: DETECTING EPISTEMIC INTERPLAY OF MEDICAL AND LEGAL DISCOURSE WITH SEX AND GENDER CLASSIFICATION IN FOUR EDITIONS OF THE DEWEY DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION by Melodie J. Fox The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2015 Under the Supervision of Professors Richard P. Smiraglia and Hope A. Olson When groups of people are represented in classification systems, potential exists for them to be structurally or linguistically subordinated, erased or otherwise misrepresented (Olson & Schlegl, 2001). As Bowker & Star (1999) have shown, the real-world application of classification to people can have legal, economic, medical, social, and educational consequences. The purpose of this research is to contribute to knowledge organization by showing how the epistemological stance underlying specific classificatory discourses interactively participates in the formation of concepts. The medical and legal discourses in three timeframes are examined using Foucauldian genealogical discourse analysis to investigate how their depictions of gender and epistemic foundations correspond and interplay with conceptualizations of similar concepts in four editions of the Dewey Decimal Classification. As knowledge organization research seeks solutions to manage the paradigm change from assumptions of universal knowledge to instability of knowledge, recognition of epistemological underpinnings of classification systems is necessary to understand the very real consequences of corresponding classifications of gender. ii © Copyright by Melodie J. Fox, 2015 All Rights Reserved. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Research Problem Statement ............................................................................. 1 Epistemology .................................................................................................................. 6 The Epistemic Spectrum ............................................................................................. 8 Universal stances.. .................................................................................................. 8 Postmodern stances. ................................................................................................ 9 Social epistemologies.. .......................................................................................... 10 Epistemology in Bibliographic Classification ........................................................ 111 Ontology ................................................................................................................... 11 Gender and Sex Classification .................................................................................. 12 Oppression ................................................................................................................ 14 Oppression in knowledge organization .................................................................. 17 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 20 Chapter 2: Literature Review ............................................................................................ 21 Scope of the Literature .................................................................................................. 22 Epistemology in Knowledge Organization Research ................................................... 24 Specific Epistemic Stances ....................................................................................... 29 Social epistemologies. ........................................................................................... 29 Individualist epistemologies. ................................................................................ 34 Feminist, Transgender and Intersex Literature on the Classification of Gender .......... 39 Feminist classifications of gender ............................................................................. 40 Transgenderism and intersexuality ........................................................................... 43 Epistemology and Metaphysics in Gender Classification ........................................ 46 iv Classic essentialists. .............................................................................................. 47 Revisionist essentialisms.. .................................................................................... 48 Standpoint theory.. ................................................................................................ 51 Reactions to essentialism. ..................................................................................... 51 Postmodernist epistemology ..................................................................................... 52 Middle ways: Concept theory, discursivity, and positionality. ................................. 54 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 56 Chapter 3: Methodology ................................................................................................... 58 Epistemological Assumptions ....................................................................................... 60 Definition of Terms ....................................................................................................... 61 Foucauldian Discourse Analysis ................................................................................... 63 Genealogical Discourse Analysis ............................................................................. 65 Discourse .................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Classification and Discourse Analysis ...................................................................... 69 Classification for Analysis ............................................................................................ 72 Dewey Decimal Classification .................................................................................. 72 Internal Procedures. .............................................................................................. 74 External Discourse.. .............................................................................................. 79 Limitations .................................................................................................................. 844 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 855 Chapter 4: Findings, External Procedures ........................................................................ 87 Analysis of the Discourse ............................................................................................. 94 Social Context 1871-1885 ......................................................................................... 94 v Medico-legal Metanarrative 1871-1885 ................................................................... 95 Men and women.. ................................................................................................ 955 Intersex people.. ................................................................................................ 1077 Trans people. ..................................................................................................... 1122 Social Context 1958-1965 ..................................................................................... 1133 Medico-legal Metanarrative 1958-1965 ............................................................... 1188 Men and women. ............................................................................................... 1188 Intersex people.. ................................................................................................ 1222 Trans people.. .................................................................................................... 1244 Social Context 1971-1979 ..................................................................................... 1300 Medical-legal Metanarrative 1971-1979 ..............................................................
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