What do categorisations create?
A teaching slide on what pictograms do. Kvinna / Man.
What it is
One of our main research themes in recent years is categorisation. What do 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 do: 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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