The General Framework and Scope of Standards Studies

The standards world has radically changed over the past two decades, with an increased impact on business and society, although the essential characteristic of standardization, namely, to achieve the optimal order in a given context, remains unchanged. In this paper, such evolution of international standardization, caused by its structural adaptation to changes in its environment as well as the origin and history of standardization and standards are reviewed initially. Subsequently, ‘standard studies’ is advocated as a new academic discipline to comprehensively analyze the problems of standardization and standards from a broader perspective, transcending predominantly technological concerns. Finally, the need to invest in standards research and education is highlighted.