Categories invented to fill typological gaps vanish from later empirical use

Evidence

One signal that these new types are there to meet the exhaustive rule requirement is that they often disappear from the scene in empirical and theoretical work. While I have not made a systematic search, I have not seen a single article using the Geddes data that focuses on these new types in the statistical analysis; even including them at all is quite rare. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 1272

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels Bowker and Star’s argument that classification systems create residual ‘other’ categories nobody studies.