Indexing Systems: The Evolution of Knowledge Organisation in Modern Society - Hardcover

Cevolini, Alberto

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3032138124 ISBN 13: 9783032138125

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2026

Synopsis

This book analyses search engines as indexing systems: structures of social memory, designed to organise information access when knowledge is stored in archives. It views indexing systems as a highly improbable outcome of socio-cultural evolution, and charts the main stages of this social process through the impact of printing on knowledge organisation, the rise of mechanical memory, the practice of tagging, and contemporary strategies of de-indexing. In the process, the book sheds new light on the underexplored sociological question “Where do search engines come from?”

About this title

About the Author

Alberto Cevolini is Associate Professor at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy. His research focuses on sociological theory and intellectual history, with particular attention to social system theory, the development of note-taking practices, and the invention of filing cabinets in early modern Europe. He is the author of De arte excerpendi. Imparare a dimenticare nella prima modernità (Florence, 2006) and editor of Forgetting Machines. Knowledge Management Evolution in Early Modern Europe (Leiden and Boston, 2016). He also edited the English translation of Thomas Harrison’s Ark of Studies (Turnhout, 2017).

From the Back Cover

This book analyses search engines as indexing systems: structures of social memory, designed to organise information access when knowledge is stored in archives. It views indexing systems as a highly improbable outcome of socio-cultural evolution, and charts the main stages of this social process through the impact of printing on knowledge organisation, the rise of mechanical memory, the practice of tagging, and contemporary strategies of de-indexing. In the process, the book sheds new light on the underexplored sociological question “Where do search engines come from?”

Alberto Cevolini is Associate Professor at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy. His research focuses on sociological theory and intellectual history, with particular attention to social system theory, the development of note-taking practices, and the invention of filing cabinets in early modern Europe. He is the author of De arte excerpendi. Imparare a dimenticare nella prima modernità (Florence, 2006) and editor of Forgetting Machines. Knowledge Management Evolution in Early Modern Europe (Leiden and Boston, 2016). He also edited the English translation of Thomas Harrison’s Ark of Studies (Turnhout, 2017).

Edition details

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3032138124
• ISBN 13: 9783032138125
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 231