Hegemonies in classification: an introduction

Classifications serve as shared systems to organize and handle knowledge in a given domain. They act as infrastructures that "[enforce] a certain understanding of context, place, and time". We therefore look at classifications as being one of the means to "establish, maintain, and transform mechanisms of power", while these same mechanisms of power are at the same time deeply inscribed into classifications. This mutual dependency of power and classifications raises the question how changes in the roles of the actors who negotiate classifications affect and maybe challenge power relations and hegemonies in a wider sense.