Made Up People : An Interdisciplinary Approach to Labelling and the Construction of People in Post-War History

Making Up People” 30 years later My first “making up people” talk was given in the summer of 1984 at a conference in Stanford, Reconstructing Individualism. It described itself as a kind of “dynamic nominalism”—as concerned with the interaction between people and how they are called. I focussed on how kinds of people can come into being, hand in hand with the ways that they are classified and named. Later I came to emphasize looping effects—not only can names influence people, but also people classified in a certain way can themselves change and so modify what the classification means. I also broadened the framework from a simple relation between people and names, to include institutions, experts, knowledge, and collective practices and popular beliefs. The ideas have been adapted in many ways that I did not anticipate, witness this conference. This talk will describe the evolution of the project, as I see it. I still hold to the final sentence of the original paper: “I see no reason to suppose that we shall ever tell two identical stories of two different instances of making up people.” I will conclude with a few reflections on the recent DSM-5, taking off from (but not repeating) my piece in the London Review of Books, 8 August this year.


Conference Information 3
Provisional Programme 4 Professor Ian Hacking (University of Toronto) Biography 5 Presentation Abstracts: 6 Professor Gerda Reith (University of Glasgow) 6 Making Up Addicts: The Emergence of the 'Pathological Gambler' and the

Abstract "Making Up People" 30 years later
My first "making up people" talk was given in the summer of 1984 at a conference in Stanford, Reconstructing Individualism.It described itself as a kind of "dynamic nominalism"-as concerned with the interaction between people and how they are called.I focussed on how kinds of people can come into being, hand in hand with the ways that they are classified and named.Later I came to emphasize looping effects-not only can names influence people, but also people classified in a certain way can themselves change and so modify what the classification means.I also broadened the framework from a simple relation between people and names, to include institutions, experts, knowledge, and collective practices and popular beliefs.
The ideas have been adapted in many ways that I did not anticipate, witness this conference.This talk will describe the evolution of the project, as I see it.I still hold to the final sentence of the original paper: "I see no reason to suppose that we shall ever tell two identical stories of two different instances of making up people."I will conclude with a few reflections on the recent DSM-5, taking off from (but not repeating) my piece in the London Review of Books, 8 th August this year.

Abstracts Professor Gerda Reith
Professor of Social Sciences (Sociology), University of Glasgow, gerda.reith@glasgow.ac.uk

Making Up Addicts: The Emergence of the 'Pathological Gambler' and the Contradictions of Consumption
This paper traces the emergence of the 'pathological gambler' as a distinct historical figure during the later part of the 20 th and early 21 st centuries.It argues that this figure is made up through the intersection of various types of discourse: those of addiction, risk, irrationality and control.Each of these expresses a particular epistemological orientation and articulates a distinct vision of personhood and identity.It is further suggested that these discourses of are themselves created through some of the tensions inherent in late modern consumer societies.Although historically, gambling was criticised for undermining the ethic of production, today the notion of problem gambling is expressed in terms of a 'consumption ethic' based on the values of self-actualization, responsibility and reason.This is related to wider socio-economic trends in which external regulation is replaced with an emphasis on internal self-control that is carried out through appropriate types of consumption.In the case of gambling, the recent deregulation and liberalization of Western markets, together with an emphasis on individual player responsibility, expresses the tensions inherent in consumer capitalism, and creates the conditions for the emergence of the pathological gambler as a unique historical type.

Dr Christopher Browning
Reader of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick, c.s.browning@warwick.ac.uk

Making Up Citizens: 'Nation Branding, Subjectivity and Citizenship'
This paper analyses how contemporary practices of nation branding are entailing implications for how subjectivity and citizenship are being reconceptualised in nationalist identity politics.The paper argues that contemporary processes of nation branding are reflective of changing conceptions of the nature of the international system and how best to achieve a sense of national (self)-esteem in that context.In this context, however, nation branding is arguably shifting idealised notions of what constitutes 'good citizenship' away from the selfless exploits and sacrifices of national heroes, to an emphasis on the entrepreneurial instinct and the responsibilisation of citizens as brand carriers and national representatives.One consequence of this is that nation branding strategies typically entail an invocation for citizens to embrace a form of cultural and economic citizenship over their political citizenship.In this respect the paper argues that nation branding programmes often perform significant disciplining functions by framing the bounds of acceptability.Despite this, however, the paper argues that possibilities for resistance remain.

Made Up People: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Labelling and the Construction of People in Post-War History
Dr Christopher Browning (University of Warwick) 6 Making Up Citizens: 'Nation Branding, Subjectivity and Citizenship' Dr Chris Millard (Queen Mary, University of London) 7 Making Up Munchausen: Self-harm, Child Abuse and the Internet Should you have any dietary or access requirements please contact the Centre for the History of Medicine Administrator (Sheilagh Holmes) via email: Sheilagh.Holmes@warwick.ac.uk or tel: 024 765 72601.

Making Up Munchausen: Self-harm, Child Abuse and the Internet Dr
Chris Millard (Queen Mary, University of London)

by Closing Remarks Made Up People: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Labelling and the Construction of People in Post-War History Biography Professor Ian Hacking Department
of Philosophy, University of Toronto, ian.hacking@college-de-france.frBiographyIanHacking is a Professor Emeritus of the Collège de France and the University of Toronto.His books cover many topics, from experimental physics to mental illness, from statistical thinking to social construction.His next book, to appear early 2014, is titled Why is there Philosophy of Mathematics at all? Hacking introduced the phrase, "making up people," as the title of a paper published in 1986, and has since used it in numerous contexts including multiple personality, criminality, poverty, obesity and autism.