Inside Categorization: Objectifying the Discriminations Produced by Policy Instruments

Resumen

Policy instruments reproduce political and social inequalities. While different sociological objectification techniques allow us to approach the production of these discriminations, descriptive statistics, ethnographic observation, and semi-structured interviews also present significant limitations. This article addresses the methodological challenges posed by policy instruments and proposes an analytical framework based on the intersection of these three sources. Drawing from the experience of my doctoral thesis on teacher evaluation, I outline pathways for researchers to objectify the categorization process of policy instruments that rely to varying degrees on the quantification of individuals and their practices.