Telling People Apart

Outline of a Theory of Human Differentiation

Bibliographic Data

ID2364024
AuthorsStefan Hirschauer (0000-0001-7678-150X, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume41
Issue4
Pages352-376
Publication date2023-12-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociological Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0735-2751 • E-ISSN: 1467-9558
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/07352751231206411
OpenAlexW4387959318
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited39

Alongside subsystems, classes, and types of socials relations, societies differentiate between categories of their personnel, referring to their age, sex, 'race,' (dis)ability, performance, geographic and social origin, sexual preference, religious conviction, profession, and so on. This article outlines a theory of human differentiation with the aim of viewing processes leading to reified memberships of human categories in an encompassing comparative approach. Differentiating humans distinguishes them perceptively, categorizes them lingually, shapes them physically, segregates them spatially, and subjects them to othering and unequal evaluative treatment. The analytic vocabulary developed in this article puts forward five elementary processes-prelingual distinction, lingual categorization, official classification, material marking/dissimilation, and segregation-and three advanced processes of asymmetrical differentiation: the alterization of humans, their differential evaluation, and the escalation into boundary constitution and polarization. Processes of human differentiation are stabilized via coupling with social and societal differentiation, but they can also be practically minimalized, normatively contained, and institutionally diluted

Categorization · Constitution · Conviction · Differentiation · Dissimilation · Epistemology · Linguistics · Premise · Social category · Social science · Sociology · Vocabulary · Gender Studies · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Law · Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Psychology

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