Intercultural warrant: deploying cultural warrant ethically

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss deployment of cultural warrant in intercultural environment, aiming to better achieve ethical warrant. Design/methodology/approach This paper synthesizes research on cultural warrant and classification, and uses examples of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) to illustrate cultural warrant in a case of cross-cultural adaptation of bibliographic classification. Findings The notion of intercultural warrant was suggested as an operational approach to cultural warrant in the context of intercultural use of Knowledge Organization System (KOS). Research limitations/implications The research focuses on discussions of cultural warrant in the context of intercultural uses of KOS but lacking diverse examples of KOS and beyond (such as descriptive metadata standards). Originality/value This paper suggests the development of intercultural warrant as a theoretical view to understand classification systems commonly used worldwide and a path to achieve ethical treatments of cultures in such systems.