Keywords must be the first book I’ve ever read by a Marxist intellectual which has a reference to the British Standards Institution (BSI) .

I’ve recently done some work with the Local e-Government Standards Body and have been grappling with the need to explain what ’standards’ are at various meetings, workshops and conferences.

Some of the words and phrases Williams uses in the essay on standards include:

a source of authority
a level of achievement
authoritative example of correctness (Standard English)
certain levels of competence ( in Education - standards of reading, writing and arthimetic)
competence
consensual (’we all know what real standards are’)
(’anyone who is concerned with standards will agree’)
quality
precise standards ( but these definitions can change between historical periods)
is the term ’standards’ a true plural or plural singular?

‘…the popular use of standards - laudatory - is at odds with the popular use of standardization - derogatory…’

standardization of production (in industry - of parts) is seen as ok, standardization of ‘people’ is not

standard of living - but the earlier form was standard of life

Standard as - defined level or necessary level…a general condition or an averaged condition

Standard - necessary conditions to sustain something (e.g. standard of life)

standard can be set (e.g. minimum wage) and something is then judged against the standard (e.g. the level of a wage).

Standard as a sense of measurement

Also - ‘not the agreed measure, but metaphorically, the flag: the standard we set ourselves, proper standards of health care; a proper standard of living’.

‘This is Standard Future: the old measures, or the existing grades, are inadequate, and we will aim at something better’.

Good stuff - the whole essay is well worth reading.