Sorting people out: The uses of one-dimensional classificatory schemes in a multi-dimensional world

This paper examines how people are classified as part of a labour market project aimed at establishing a process for recognizing prior learning among immigrants to Sweden in order to integrate them more quickly with the labour market and society. The paper suggests that, in Sweden, this work prioritizes procedural effectiveness over a more comprehensive understanding of the competence and qualifications of the immigrant worker. By exploring the process of classification in which cognitive structuring of the perceived world results in organizational, administrative and structural enactment, the study provides further insights into how practices of classification are a central part of organizational life. The concept of intersectionality contributes by showing how individuals are situated at the intersection of a variety of classificatory schemes, and together with classification, intersectionality points to how organizational categories are never given, but a result of bureaucratic power procedures strengthening, weakening and/or negotiating away categories used to sort people out.     

Dennis R. Young,Elizabeth A. M. Searing,Cassady V. Brewer (Eds.): The Social Enterprise Zoo

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

Sorting out centrality: An analysis of the performance of four centrality models in real and simulated networks

Although the concept of centrality has been well developed in the social networks literature, its empirical development has lagged somewhat. This paper moves a step in that direction by assessing the performance of four centrality models under a variety of known and controlled situations. It begins by examining the assumptions underlying each model, as well as its behavior in a community influence network. It then assesses the robustness and sensitivity of each model under conditions of random and systematic variation introduced into this network.