Showing papers by "Susan Leigh Star published in 1997"

Of Lungs and Lungers: The Classified Story of Tuberculosis

Abstract: The experience of a long-term chronic illness weaves together problems in biography, the body, and the cultural and organizational meanings of the disease. Time meets infrastructure; experience meets classification. We present here a close reading of two studies of tuberculosis: Thomas Mann's novel The Magic Mountain and Julius Roth's empirical work Timetables. Drawing on research in medical sociology and information science, we show how the trajectories of disease, biography, and institution weave together. Mismatches in the trajectories produce distortions (or torques) in time and sense of self, accounting for the phantasmagoric imagery often associated with tuberculosis. We conclude with some general observations about how the concept of trajectory might be used in understanding the intersection of biography and organization.

Problèmes de classification et de codage dans la gestion internationale de l’information

Abstract: Cet article explore l'idee que, dans les technologies d'information et les representations complexes, sont incorpores et dissimules des arguments, des valeurs, des decisions, des incertitudes ainsi que des procedures de prise de decision. Il etudie dans cette perspective l'histoire de la Classification internationale des maladies, systeme de codage actuellement applique par l'Organisation mondiale de la sante