Standardized grain grades rest on state inspectors’ contestable judgment calls

Evidence

The standardization of grain was both a technical and a social process. In Chicago the bushel, originally a unit of volume, became a unit of weight in order to permit measurement on scales on top of each elevator. A team of inspectors employed first by the Chicago Board of Trade and then by the state of Illinois checked that the scales were fair and made the inevitably contestable judgments that the contents of this bin were good enough to be classed as “No. 1 white winter wheat,” which had to “be plump, well cleaned and free from other grains,” while that bin contained only “No. 2,” which was defined as “sound, but not clean enough for No. 1” (Cronon 1991, p. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 72

Categorization

• XREF: The contestable grading judgment mirrors the book’s claim that economic categories are socially constructed and enforced, echoing the Columbia/Annihilation of Caste theme of adjudicated rank terms. — connects to: Grade standardization of grain required contestable human judgment. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 72; Standardized grain grades allow contracts detached from any particular physical entity — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 73; Surveillance-based grading audits bureaucratic compliance, not actual performance — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 104

Broader Connections

• Grade standardization of grain required contestable human judgment. #corroborates (0.95) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 72
• Standardized grain grades allow contracts detached from any particular physical entity #expands (0.80) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 73
• Surveillance-based grading audits bureaucratic compliance, not actual performance #qualifies (0.72) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 104