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 | 978-3-03-078201-6 |
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
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
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
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
- 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
References
- ^ Alonso, W., & Starr, P. (1989). The Politics of Numbers, Russell Sage Foundation.
- ^ Mennicken, Andrea; Salais, Robert, eds. (2022). The New Politics of Numbers. Springer Nature. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-78201-6. hdl:20.500.12657/50949. ISBN 978-3-030-78200-9.
- ^ Mennicken, Andrea; Salais, Robert (2022). "The New Politics of Numbers: An Introduction". The New Politics of Numbers. pp. 1–42. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-78201-6_1. ISBN 978-3-030-78200-9.
- ^ Salais, Robert (2022). ""La donnée n'est pas un donné": Statistics, Quantification and Democratic Choice". The New Politics of Numbers. pp. 379–415. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-78201-6_12. ISBN 978-3-030-78200-9.
- ^ a b c Maas, Harro (November 23, 2022). "The New Politics of Numbers: Utopia, Evidence and Democracy". Statistique et Société. 10 (2): 99–104. doi:10.4000/statsoc.523.
- ^ Miller, Peter (2022). "Afterword: Quantifying, Mediating and Intervening: The R Number and the Politics of Health in the Twenty-First Century". The New Politics of Numbers. pp. 465–476. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-78201-6_14. ISBN 978-3-030-78200-9.
- ^ Thévenot, Laurent (2022). "A New Calculable Global World in the Making: Governing Through Transnational Certification Standards". The New Politics of Numbers. pp. 197–252. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-78201-6_7. ISBN 978-3-030-78200-9.
- ^ Vormbusch, Uwe (2022). "Accounting for Who We Are and Could be: Inventing Taxonomies of the Self in an Age of Uncertainty". The New Politics of Numbers. pp. 97–134. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-78201-6_4. ISBN 978-3-030-78200-9.
- ^ Samuel, Boris (2022). "The Shifting Legitimacies of Price Measurements: Official Statistics and the Quantification of Pwofitasyon in the 2009 Social Struggle in Guadeloupe". The New Politics of Numbers. pp. 337–377. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-78201-6_11. ISBN 978-3-030-78200-9.
- ^ De Leonardis, Ota (2022). "Quantifying Inequality: From Contentious Politics to the Dream of an Indifferent Power". The New Politics of Numbers. pp. 135–166. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-78201-6_5. ISBN 978-3-030-78200-9.