Labelling

Article summary

Labelling or using a label is describing someone or something in a word or short phrase. For example, the label "criminal" may be used to describe someone who has broken a law. Labelling theory is a theory in sociology which ascribes labelling of people to control and identification of deviant behaviour. It has been argued that labelling is necessary for communication. However, the use of the term is often intended to highlight the fact that the label is a description applied from the outside, rather than something intrinsic to the labelled thing. This can be done for several reasons: * To provoke a discussion about what the best description is * To reject a particular label * To reject the whole idea that the labelled thing can be described in a short phrase. This last usage can be seen as an accusation that such a short description is overly-reductive. Giving something a label can be seen as positive, but the term label is not usually used in this case. For example, giving a name to a common identity is seen as essential in identity politics. Labelling is often equivalent to pigeonholing or the use of stereotypes and can suffer from the same problems as these activities. The labelling of people can be related to a reference group.…

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