What do categorisations create?
A teaching slide on the work that pictograms do. Kvinna / Man.
What it is
One of our main research themes in recent years is categorisation: what categorisations create, and what characterises the categorisations that do not lead to inequality and stigma. In this pictogram I single out the separation into “woman” (Kvinna) and “man” (Man) on toilet doors.
The slide does not argue against gendered signs. It asks what the signs are doing structurally: sorting bodies into types, naming the types, and assigning each type a route. Once that is visible for kvinna and man, the same reading becomes available for the wheelchair sign, and for “persons with disabilities” in policy text.
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References
- Ericsson, S., Wojahn, D., Sandström, I., & Hedvall, P.-O. (2020). Language that Supports Sustainable Development: How to Write about People in Universal Design Policy. Sustainability, 12(22), 9561. https://doi.org/10/ghrshm
- Ericsson, S., & Hedvall, P.-O. (2024). Situation, Non-categorisation, and Variation — Conveying Nonclusion Through Text and Image. In Difference: Sketching, Visualising and Challenging Universal Design in Sweden (Vol. 19, pp. 31–50). Design for All Institute of India.
- Hedvall, P.-O., & Ericsson, S. (2024). From Inclusive to Nonclusive Design: A Shift in Categorisation. In Difference: Sketching, Visualising and Challenging Universal Design in Sweden (Vol. 19, pp. 10–30). Design for All Institute of India.
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