Standards: Recipes for Reality

by Lawrence Busch

Standards are the means by which we construct realities. There are establishedstandards for professional accreditation, the environment, consumer products, animal welfare, theacceptable stress for highway bridges, healthcare, education -- for almost everything. We aresurrounded by a vast array of standards, many of which we take for granted but each of which hasbeen and continues to be the subject of intense negotiation. In this book, Lawrence Buschinvestigates standards as "recipes for reality." Standards, he argues, shape not only thephysical world around us but also our social lives and even our selves. Buschshows how standards are intimately connected to power -- that they often serve to empower some anddisempower others. He outlines the history of formal standards and describes how modern science cameto be associated with the moral-technical project of standardization of both people and things.Busch suggests guidelines for developing fair, equitable, and effective standards. Taking a uniquelyintegrated and comprehensive view of the subject, Busch shows how standards for people and thingsare inextricably linked, how standards are always layered (even if often addressed serially), andhow standards are simultaneously technical, social, moral, legal, and ontological devices.

Genres: Nonfiction, Social Science

390 pages, Hardcover

First published September 16, 2011

Reviews

[Jody Ranck]

nice science and tech studies piece on the politics of standards, fascinating!

[Judd Street · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much like Porter's "Trust in Numbers" is to quantification, this is an excellent volume for introducing the power that standards have over the world. It's approachable in its writing, and I'd assign the first chapter of it without hesitation to an undergrad class in Science Studies.

Busch also does an exceptional demonstrating how to engage with equivocating definitions and make sense of these different layers. It's an excellent model for dealing with contrasting definitions, creating a taxonomy, and being clear and precise with his language.

If the book suffers any flaw, it's that the point is so well made in the first chapter that some of the later examples can feel a little redundant. Chapters 3-5 are especially useful, but the examples (in Chapter 2 and elsewhere) can feel a little too numerous.

[Mike · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a real disappointment. The space of standards is ripe for thinking about them that extends beyond the technical realm and explores their societal impacts. Instead, this vacillated between fairly weak philosophical survey and (randomly) anti-NCLB screed. Not worth a read.