Indexing – The politics of invisibility

Abstract

The paper argues that the politics of lists start even before the existence of ready-made list. Rather, we have to focus on how the items of a list are produced. It is argued that list-making performs an analogue–digital conversion: it converts continuous material (e.g. narratives, arguments, descriptions) into discontinuous, isolated items. The history of professional indexing (from the 19th century to search engines) is used as an exemplary case for analysing the practices of this conversion. It is argued that the often hidden work of indexing constitutes a politics of invisibility and that there exists a need for strategies that help to read the hidden ‘personalities’ of lists.