Standards: Recipes for Reality by Lawrence Busch

By Lawrence Busch

Criteria are the capability wherein we build realities. There are proven criteria for pro accreditation, the surroundings, purchaser items, animal welfare, the suitable tension for road bridges, healthcare, education--for virtually every little thing. we're surrounded through an unlimited array of criteria, a lot of which we take with no consideration yet each one of which has been and is still the topic of severe negotiation. during this publication, Lawrence Busch investigates criteria as "recipes for reality." criteria, he argues, form not just the actual global round us but in addition our social lives or even our selves. Busch exhibits how criteria are in detail hooked up to power--that they typically serve to empower a few and disempower others. He outlines the heritage of formal criteria and describes how glossy technological know-how got here to be linked to the moral-technical venture of standardization of either humans and issues. He examines using criteria to differentiate and the way this impacts our perceptions; he discusses the construction of a worldwide process of audits, certifications, and accreditations; and he considers concerns of belief, honesty, and threat. After exploring the afflicted coexistence of criteria and democracy, Busch indicates guidance for constructing reasonable, equitable, and powerful criteria. Taking a uniquely built-in and entire view of the topic, Busch indicates how criteria for individuals and issues are inextricably associated, how criteria are consistently layered (even if usually addressed serially), and the way criteria are concurrently technical, social, ethical, felony, and ontological units.

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But it should also be noted that the persons who take the test determine its validity. In short, they test the test. The opposite situation arises with a quality control test for canned peas. , other plant parts, dirt), whether the peas remain whole, their taste, size, and color, and whether they are fully cooked but not overcooked. While some of these processes are frequently automated, most require human oversight. They require that farmers exercise care in the growing and harvesting of the peas and that factory workers check innumerable gauges to ensure that the product is cooked at the right temperature for the proper amount of time.

The internal workings of the engine became a black box I had no need to inquire into unless the truck broke down. The same would be true for a contemporary carpenter. Whereas in times past, carpenters made their own tools or had them custom-made for them, today they are likely to buy tools at a hardware store. If a carpenter’s 16-oz. hammer breaks or is lost, he or she can purchase another one and immediately establish a relation of handiness with it. One consequence of the embedding of standards in everyday objects is that the objects acquire a kind of taken-for-grantedness that is not the case for nonstandardized objects.

For most purposes, the difference produced by an infinitely repeating decimal is inconsequential, but in certain scientific experiments small errors might make a significant difference. Hence, it is fair to say that these two scales are nearly fully commensurable. Moreover, someone has to do the measuring; as such, achieving commensurability (or not) is an achievement and not a given. The Power of Standards 35 In contrast, cuts of meat are only partially commensurable. 1). Certain standards are fully incommensurable.

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