The New Politics of Numbers
 | |
| Editors | Andrea Mennicken Robert Salais |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subjects | Social statistics Politics |
| Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan |
Publication date | 2022 |
| Pages | 497 |
| ISBN | Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). |
The New Politics of Numbers: Utopia, evidence and democracy is a multi-author book edited by sociologists Andrea Mennicken and Robert Salais and published in 2022 by Palgrave Macmillan.
Synopsis
[edit | edit source]This work builds on the 1989 volume The Politics of Numbers of William Alonso and Paul Starr,[1] as well as Alain Desrosières’ The Politics of Large Numbers, the contributions of Laurent Thévenot, and other scholars in France and the UK. The volume[2] sets out to investigate the power of statistics, how they travel across countries and domains, how they may be implicated in policy reform, and how they establish accountability and regulation.[3] The book devotes particular attention to the linkages between statistics and democracy.[4]
The book was inspired by a working group on social quantification at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin in 2014.[5] It is inspired by two strands of research: one related to Foucauldian ideas of power and control, which were studied by historians and sociologists at the London School of Economics; and the other being the "economics of conventions" or "theory of conventions", studied by various French scholars, including Luc Boltanski, Laurent Thévenot, and originally by Alain Desrosières.[5]
Content
[edit | edit source]Peter Miller's chapter investigates the role of statistics in design of health policies.[6] The role of quantification in international certification standards is discussed by Thévenot.[7] Uwe Vormbusch provides recounts the quantified self movement,[8] while Boris Samuel provides an example of Statactivism staged in French Guadeloupe.[9] Ota De Leonardis discusses how statistics permit a semantic shift in the meaning of inequality.[10] The book also contains chapters from other scholars such as Emmanuel Didier, Martine Mespoulet, Tom Lang, Corine Eyraud and others. Wendy Nelson Espeland writes the foreword "What Numbers Do".
Reception
[edit | edit source]Harro Maas writes that "it is just impossible to open a newspaper or news site without being reminded of the themes addressed in this volume" after having read the book.[5]
Related readings
[edit | edit source]- Alain Desrosières, The Politics of Large Numbers: a history of statistical reasoning, Harvard University Press (1998).
- Alonso, W., & Starr, P. (1989). The Politics of Numbers, Russell Sage Foundation.
- Bessy, C., & Didry, C. (Eds.). (2022). L’économie est une science réflexive, Chômage, convention et capacité dans l’œuvre de Robert Salais, Presses Universitaires du Septentrion.
- Theodore M. Porter, Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life, Princeton University Press, 1995.
See also
[edit | edit source]References
[edit | edit source]- ^ Alonso, W., & Starr, P. (1989). The Politics of Numbers, Russell Sage Foundation.
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ a b c Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).