This project examines the ways knowledge organization (KO) and the formation of devised (Kempton 1981) knowledge organization systems (KOS) influence the classification of food and diet-related health conditions. The epistemic and ethical issues explored throughout these investigations, however, reach far beyond the boundaries of the given cases to ask foundational questions about perception, cognition, and the organization of experience, all of which are positioned as uniquely KO processes. Heuristic reasoning, tacit knowledge (Polanyi 1966), and perceptual categorization are of particular interest, and the three concepts are approached as organizational activities rooted in the formation of standards of similarity (Quine 1969), pattern identification, and attribute substitution (Kahneman and Frederick 2002). Throughout this work, the epistemological, ontological, and sociological dimensions of knowledge organization (Hartel and Hjørland 2003) are assessed alongside relevant cognitive factors.

Critical discourse analysis and frame theory are used to conduct four primary food-related case studies. In Chapters 4 and 5, Jewish dietary laws (kashruth) are analyzed through a historical and cultural lens; viewing kashruth as an organizing structure for social tacit knowledge, I consider methodological approaches for identifying and analyzing tacicity within a KOS. In Chapter 6, I discuss the KO qualities of the body mass index (BMI) and question the social and epidemiological implications of health heuristics rooted in the utilization of BMI classifications. I conclude by conceptualizing a KO theory of referential transference—a process in which tacit knowledge becomes embedded within devised KOS through a form of heuristic substitution—using a selection of U.S. legislative categories and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans as exploratory examples.