ABSTRACT
Categorization is fundamental to human existence. It penetrates every context of collective social action and individual reasoning. We simply cannot describe, reflect on, or deal with reality without invoking categories and, thus indirectly, systems and traditions of categorization by means of which we render events and objects intelligible. Categories are codified in language and largely invisible to us. We treat them as transparent and rarely run into situations where we have to doubt their relevance. Many categories undergo naturalization (Bowker and Star, 1999, p. 294), and appear as self-evident, even though they may in fact have been problematic in the past. But there is also the opposite process. Categories referring to race, ethnicity or gender have passed unnoticed as indicative of a natural state of affairs in the past, but later they emerged as cultural constructions contingent on a certain social order and/or world view. And as such, they can be contested.
