Introduction: Epistemologies of the Match

Hsiung, Hansun; Serrano, Elena

Abstract

Algorithmically driven online dating platforms today promise the ability to sort through relevant data and identify one’s ideal amorous matches effectively. Yet the appeal of technological and scientific solutions to the messy problem of finding partners is hardly new. This introduction to the Focus section “It’s a Match!” argues that the history of amorous matching has long been part and parcel of the history of science, in particular the social sciences. Taking matching as an “applied science of social harmony,” the authors argue that concern over more reliable techniques for determining the suitability of partners has formed an essential part of both the maintenance of social order and the shaping of subjectivities, enabling discourses of informed choice and the rational management of the passions, while also reinforcing and subverting structures of age, gender, race, and sexuality.

Citation

Hsiung, H., & Serrano, E. (2021). Introduction: Epistemologies of the Match. Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society, 112(4), 760-765. https://doi.org/10.1086/716882

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: 2021-12
• Deposit Date: Sep 15, 2021
• Journal: Isis
• Print ISSN: 0021-1753
• Electronic ISSN: 1545-6994
• Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 112
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 760-765
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/716882
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1234466