Critical Knowledge Organization Research Group

Knowledge Organization is the study of systems and processes applied for the description, representation, and organisation of documents (analogue or digital) as well as intangible phenomena (concepts, rituals, etc.). Systems for this application can include rules and standards such as classification systems, subject headings, and other metadata. Processes include acts of description and content analysis through indexing or classifying.

These practices and devices may seem instrumental, but they are never wholly objective nor neutral. They represent certain kinds of cognitive or social authority. The act of describing and the established norms of categorisation are inherently interwoven with power structures defining individual object and document collections and their embodied memory and history. Authority and established norms and standards also govern stakeholders and institutions housing them. 

Power structures and dynamics

The Critical Knowledge Organization Research Group studies such power structures and dynamics manifested across document and object collections through the ordering systems and processes imposed upon them. Across numerous situations and contexts, we explore how structures and practices of cognitive and social authority are expressed and responded to.

The group tackles questions such as:

• What are the individual, social and cultural consequences of classification and metadata in libraries, museums and archives? What are the ethical implications of these practices?
• What alternative approaches have been, and can be, developed to confront unjust ideological or colonial authority in Knowledge Organization Systems? What can be learned from non-western scientific ways to organise knowledge and documents as found in, for instance, various indigenous knowledge traditions?
• Do advances in technology (social media, semantic web, artificial intelligence) reproduce or challenge pre-existing biases in how cultural collections are represented?
• How is the post-custodial turn in libraries, museums and archives reflected in how collections are organized?

The Critical Knowledge Organization Research Group brings together cross-disciplinary perspectives from fields such as Library and Information Science, Digital Humanities, History, Cultural Sciences, Film and Literature, to find new ways of addressing questions at the intersection of knowledge and power. The research group promotes knowledge sharing among the critical knowledge organization community at Linnaeus and beyond through publications, PhD courses and scholarly seminars.

Research

Staff