User:JREverest/sandbox/Approaches to Knowledge/Seminar group 5/Disciplinary categories

Introduction

Disciplinary categories are part of most people's everyday life. From primary school to university, these disciplines are ways of classifying students according to what they like, what they 'are good at', and what they will eventually exercise as a job. Nowadays, the division is mostly made between scientific disciplines such as mathematics, computing, biology, chemistry, physics, and arts such as literature, visual arts, languages, music, cinema...

But this division was not always this way: in the Middle Ages, the division was between quadrivium and trivium (education was only for future priests, and in latin exclusively). Quadrivium encompassed arithmetics, geometry, music and astronomy, while trivium encompassed grammar, dialectic and rhetoric. The quadrivium was mostly about disciplines while the trivium dealt with skills.

These disciplinary categories are what make research or even leisure simpler: thanks to one broad concept, one is able to express what one studies and what will be one's field of work in the future. Nevertheless, are these categories justifiable? Doesn't the fact that their organization can be so different from one country to another prove that they are arbitrary?

Library

There is more than one method of categorization in libraries, and these systems constantly undergo revision (such as the work of Barbara Gittings) The most commonly used systems are the universal schemes, such as the Dewey Decimal system, Universal Decimal Classification, and the Dickinson Classification, which cover a breadth of subjects, as opposed to specific classification schemes, such as Iconclass, which focuses specifically on art and iconography. There are also national schemes, for example in Sweden.

UCL main library reading room

Modern libraries catered to a younger target audience can also choose to arrange their books by genres such as true crime, fantasy, murder-mystery etc. to encourage readers to discover new books within their realm of interest. Mobile libraries which were fashionable in the late 1990's, have the tendency to categorize by genre as well as authors' name due to the smaller collection of books. With technological advancements, books are also often stored as eBooks in Kindles and iPads where they can be easily retrieved using a search engine that allows the reader to search by authors name, genre, date of publication, title and even quotes lifted directly from the book by capitalizing on a partnership with the website Goodreads. Users can also rate and leave reviews or pose questions for books, as well as interact with other users to discuss and discover new books of interest. Books can also be suggested to users based on a customized algorithm of what their friends are reading and what books other users who have read the same book suggest. This allows for a more personalized categorization of books according to the user's preferences and social reading circles.

Usually, books are categorized hierarchically, from broadest to most specific for example English Literature, then poetry, then romanticism. Then the books are also classified by alphabetical order, according to the last name of the author.

Methods of categorization have also been changing over time. The 21st century saw the rise in the need to enable crosswalk between sources, as well as the need to integrate online resources into the way that knowledge is searched and received. The rise in online resources in the modern world allows links between resources, which makes the classification restrictions less rigid.

Museums

Most museums separate their galleries in regards to broad categories of knowledge:

Bust at the British museum, part of the permanent exhibition of Egyptian sculptures

• One example is the Natural History Museum in New York, which focuses on geology and paleontology, however different zone cluster different aspects of this knowledge.
  • The Red Zone holds exhibits regarding the early history and geology of the earth and the universe as well as human evolution.
  • The Green Zone focuses on fossils and minerals.
  • The Blue Zone focuses on biology and zoology.
  • The Orange Zone that focuses on scientific research and insects

• In 1931, an international exposition was held in Paris where nations would expose their colonial richness. This exhibition aimed at highlighting the colonial empires of the West (Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands..) and Europe. The museums they had allowed them to share their knowledge on those oversea countries that were until then barely known by Europeans.

Museums are generally public buildings and thus house public knowledge.

In many cases, under each category there will be a corridor along the timeline, so that the visitors can get a direct and clearer view of this topic as going through it. Besides time, country and location are also important parameters for categorizing and exhibiting. For instance, in the British Museum, one can see a well-designed layout of various countries on different floors on the map.

The Internet

General classification

Knowledge on the internet is not accessible by everyone. Accessibility varies between higher and lower income countries, and is dependent on the level of wealth of individuals e.g. whether they can afford technological devices such as computers and WiFi. Knowledge is also categorized by different search methods e.g. in google, we are able to search not only through links but also through images, videos, maps, books, news, etc

• Knowledge on the Internet is organized thanks to keywords- general words which enable the user to get more or less precise results with websites which target the knowledge needed. Nevertheless, this knowledge is unequally divided: e.g: some keywords are very popular whereas others are not (and few people write about them, so there aren't many sources of information).
• Sources of information: official ones but also private ones (q&a websites, blogs).
• Sometimes content is locked and can only be accessed when paying (issue of democratization of knowledge).

'Fake news' and conflicts

Since the Internet is supposed to be accessible by anyone (whatever their age, nationality, social class or beliefs), and is supposed to be contributed to by everyone, it is obviously a place of CONFLICT. One probably thinks of social networks (available through the Internet), where fights between people of different beliefs take place (often political, religious or ideological). One can draw the conclusion that the Internet is a virtual contact zone between people who, normally, would not meet. Knowledge can therefore be manipulated more easily (according to one's opinion) without risking repression or censure (unless an offense was reported). The Internet is supposed to be used democratically, by participation, but this creates downsizes like the creation of rumors, 'fake news', false information. What can be a tool, can also be dangerous. When writing an assignment, students are usually told to verify the information they find on Wikipedia, as an example, because 'anyone can write it' and could therefore post biased information.

Another problem with Internet accessibility is that, as its content is very broad and contents all kinds of point of view, some states of the world censure it (such as China, which has its own Great Firewall to select authorized data from outside China). Knowledge is therefore selected and biased whatever the research led.

Schools

Disciplinary categories and school

Schools are the main institutions where knowledge circulates fluidly and probably the most common ones since they gather a large number of students, ranging from local communities to international ones in some cases. The transmission of knowledge in these "learning hubs" can be done in various ways. One way is through the teacher giving the lesson, and the other way is through the academic books appearing in the scholar curriculum. In order to convey knowledge in the most convenient way, the latter is structured in different categories, commonly known as subjects -these include Mathematics, Languages, Geography, History, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, etc. In most schools, some of these are compulsory (often they are Mathematics and the native language of the country in which they are taught).

Melbourne High School 2006

'The schools are also categorized according to certain criteria. In the United Kingdom, for instance, they are split into public, state, private, independent schools and boarding schools. Whereas in Germany, on the other hand, the latter falls into two categories which are 'Gymnasien' and 'Realschulen. In Italy, once a student reaches the age of 14, they will move from a general 'first-grade' secondary school and move to one of three 'second-grade' categories: licei (specialized secondary schools), istituti tecnici (technical schools for theoretical vocational training) and istituti professionali (technical schools for practical vocational training). They will study at this school until the age of 19. Even within these categories, there are several sub-types. For example, there are 6 types of liceo in which a student can enroll; these all specialize in different educational spheres such as classics, languages, 'hard' sciences, arts, music and social sciences.

Although schools have long been praised for their role as a bridge for social ascension, particularly public schools, and for having contributed to the reinforcement of social cohesion within societies, they are currently facing many critics such as reproducing social and economic inequalities raising the question of its efficiency as a knowledge conveyor in part. This theory established by famous sociologist Bourdieu has grown in popularity since it's publication in 1990. Hence, we can criticize schools for not accomplishing their mission of "social elevator" since the knowledge they communicate is more relatable to the ruling society (culturally and financially), and harder to grasp by less fortunate people.

Another example of classification in schools is by age; all countries split their schools up into separate year groups in order to make sure that students are surrounded by peers who are at a similar stage of development to them. Sir Ken Robinson, an educator and an adviser on the matter, criticizes this on the basis that it is a flawed assumption that people develop at the same rate. He also states that students will have different aptitude in different subjects, and that their educational formation is not always representative of their social formation, and thus he has called for a more holistic approach to grouping children in schools.

Towards the end of disciplinary categories?

In his book Knowledge Power, Pr. Alan Wilson suggests that future education will not divide students and different types of knowledge by discipline, but rather by skill. In world which is more and more focused on knowledge and its creation, one needs a complete set of tools (skills) to tackle a complex problem. Having a very deep understanding of only one discipline will not suffice. Future students will have to learn skills from different disciplines to be able to understand the world and its issues. They will need (and already do need) breadth and depth and therefore the disciplinary categories are no longer needed as 'divisions'.

What will education look like? To acquire a set of sharp tools, one will need to develop skills within complementary disciplines to tackle issues which encompass these disciplines. Superconcepts are examples of concepts which tackle multiple disciplines at the same time. Eventually, categories will embrace different disciplines dealing with the same subject rather than separating them according to whether they are scientific or artistic.

Notes

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