Measuring Society

Measuring Society PDF Author: Chaitra H. Nagaraja
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1351867830
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Collecting and analyzing data on unemployment, inflation, and inequality help describe the complex world around us. When published by the government, such data are called official statistics. They are reported by the media, used by politicians to lend weight to their arguments, and by economic commentators to opine about the state of society. Despite such widescale use, explanations about how these measures are constructed are seldom provided for a non-technical reader. This Measuring Society book is a short, accessible guide to six topics: jobs, house prices, inequality, prices for goods and services, poverty, and deprivation. Each relates to concepts we use on a personal level to form an understanding of the society in which we live: We need a job, a place to live, and food to eat. Using data from the United States, we answer three basic questions: why, how, and for whom these statistics have been constructed. We add some context and flavor by discussing the historical background. This book provides the reader with a good grasp of these measures. Chaitra H. Nagaraja is an Associate Professor of Statistics at the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University in New York. Her research interests include house price indices and inequality measurement. Prior to Fordham, Dr. Nagaraja was a researcher at the U.S. Census Bureau. While there, she worked on projects relating to the American Community Survey.

Measuring Society

Measuring Society PDF Author: Chaitra H. Nagaraja
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1351867830
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Get Book Here

Book Description
Collecting and analyzing data on unemployment, inflation, and inequality help describe the complex world around us. When published by the government, such data are called official statistics. They are reported by the media, used by politicians to lend weight to their arguments, and by economic commentators to opine about the state of society. Despite such widescale use, explanations about how these measures are constructed are seldom provided for a non-technical reader. This Measuring Society book is a short, accessible guide to six topics: jobs, house prices, inequality, prices for goods and services, poverty, and deprivation. Each relates to concepts we use on a personal level to form an understanding of the society in which we live: We need a job, a place to live, and food to eat. Using data from the United States, we answer three basic questions: why, how, and for whom these statistics have been constructed. We add some context and flavor by discussing the historical background. This book provides the reader with a good grasp of these measures. Chaitra H. Nagaraja is an Associate Professor of Statistics at the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University in New York. Her research interests include house price indices and inequality measurement. Prior to Fordham, Dr. Nagaraja was a researcher at the U.S. Census Bureau. While there, she worked on projects relating to the American Community Survey.

OECD Guide to Measuring the Information Society 2011

OECD Guide to Measuring the Information Society 2011 PDF Author: OECD
Publisher: OECD Publishing
ISBN: 9264113541
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
This Guide to Measuring the Information Society is a compilation of concepts, definitions, classifications and methods for information society measurement and analysis.

Measuring Social Change

Measuring Social Change PDF Author: Alnoor Ebrahim
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 1503609219
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
The social sector is undergoing a major transformation. We are witnessing an explosion in efforts to deliver social change, a burgeoning impact investing industry, and an unprecedented intergenerational transfer of wealth. Yet we live in a world of rapidly rising inequality, where social sector services are unable to keep up with societal need, and governments are stretched beyond their means. Alnoor Ebrahim addresses one of the fundamental dilemmas facing leaders as they navigate this uncertain terrain: performance measurement. How can they track performance towards worthy goals such as reducing poverty, improving public health, or advancing human rights? What results can they reasonably measure and legitimately take credit for? This book tackles three core challenges of performance faced by social enterprises and nonprofit organizations alike: what to measure, what kinds of performance systems to build, and how to align multiple demands for accountability. It lays out four different types of strategies for managers to consider—niche, integrated, emergent, and ecosystem—and details the types of performance measurement and accountability systems best suited to each. Finally, this book examines the roles of funders such as impact investors, philanthropic foundations, and international aid agencies, laying out how they can best enable meaningful performance measurement.

Measuring What Counts

Measuring What Counts PDF Author: Joseph E. Stiglitz
Publisher: The New Press
ISBN: 162097570X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
A bold agenda for a better way to assess societal well-being, by three of the world's leading economists and statisticians "If we want to put people first, we have to know what matters to them, what improves their well-being, and how we can supply more of whatever that is." —Joseph E. Stiglitz In 2009, a group of economists led by Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz, French economist Jean-Paul Fitoussi, and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen issued a report challenging gross domestic product (GDP) as a measure of progress and well-being. Published as Mismeasuring Our Lives by The New Press, the book sparked a global conversation about GDP and a major movement among scholars, policy makers, and activists to change the way we measure our economies. Now, in Measuring What Counts, Stiglitz, Fitoussi, and Martine Durand—summarizing the deliberations of a panel of experts on the measurement of economic performance and social progress hosted at the OECD, the international organization incorporating the most economically advanced countries—propose a new, "beyond GDP" agenda. This book provides an accessible overview of the last decade's global movement, sparked by the original critique of GDP, and proposes a new "dashboard" of metrics to assess a society's health, including measures of inequality and economic vulnerability, whether growth is environmentally sustainable, and how people feel about their lives. Essential reading for our time, it also serves as a guide for policy makers and others on how to use these new tools to fundamentally change the way we measure our lives—and to plot a radically new path forward.

The Metric Society

The Metric Society PDF Author: Steffen Mau
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509530436
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 147

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Book Description
In today’s world, numbers are in the ascendancy. Societies dominated by star ratings, scores, likes and lists are rapidly emerging, as data are collected on virtually every aspect of our lives. From annual university rankings, ratings agencies and fitness tracking technologies to our credit score and health status, everything and everybody is measured and evaluated. In this important new book, Steffen Mau offers a critical analysis of this increasingly pervasive phenomenon. While the original intention behind the drive to quantify may have been to build trust and transparency, Mau shows how metrics have in fact become a form of social conditioning. The ubiquitous language of ranking and scoring has changed profoundly our perception of value and status. What is more, through quantification, our capacity for competition and comparison has expanded significantly – we can now measure ourselves against others in practically every area. The rise of quantification has created and strengthened social hierarchies, transforming qualitative differences into quantitative inequalities that play a decisive role in shaping the life chances of individuals. This timely analysis of the pernicious impact of quantification will appeal to students and scholars across the social sciences, as well as anyone concerned by the cult of numbers and its impact on our lives and societies today.

The proceedings of the 18th Annual Conference of China Electrotechnical Society

The proceedings of the 18th Annual Conference of China Electrotechnical Society PDF Author: Qingxin Yang
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9819710723
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 906

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Book Description


Measuring the Subjective Well-Being of Nations

Measuring the Subjective Well-Being of Nations PDF Author: Alan B. Krueger
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226454576
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Surely everyone wants to know the source of happiness, and indeed, economists and social scientists are increasingly interested in the study and effects of subjective well-being. Putting forward a rigorous method and new data for measuring, comparing, and analyzing the relationship between well-being and the way people spend their time—across countries, demographic groups, and history—this book will help set the agenda of research and policy for decades to come. It does so by introducing a system of National Time Accounting (NTA), which relies on individuals’ own evaluations of their emotional experiences during various uses of time, a distinct departure from subjective measures such as life satisfaction and objective measures such as the Gross Domestic Product. A distinguished group of contributors here summarize the NTA method, provide illustrative findings about well-being based on NTA, and subject the approach to a rigorous conceptual and methodological critique that advances the field. As subjective well-being is topical in economics, psychology, and other social sciences, this book should have cross-disciplinary appeal.

The Seductions of Quantification

The Seductions of Quantification PDF Author: Sally Engle Merry
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022626131X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
We live in a world where seemingly everything can be measured. We rely on indicators to translate social phenomena into simple, quantified terms, which in turn can be used to guide individuals, organizations, and governments in establishing policy. Yet counting things requires finding a way to make them comparable. And in the process of translating the confusion of social life into neat categories, we inevitably strip it of context and meaning—and risk hiding or distorting as much as we reveal. With The Seductions of Quantification, leading legal anthropologist Sally Engle Merry investigates the techniques by which information is gathered and analyzed in the production of global indicators on human rights, gender violence, and sex trafficking. Although such numbers convey an aura of objective truth and scientific validity, Merry argues persuasively that measurement systems constitute a form of power by incorporating theories about social change in their design but rarely explicitly acknowledging them. For instance, the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report, which ranks countries in terms of their compliance with antitrafficking activities, assumes that prosecuting traffickers as criminals is an effective corrective strategy—overlooking cultures where women and children are frequently sold by their own families. As Merry shows, indicators are indeed seductive in their promise of providing concrete knowledge about how the world works, but they are implemented most successfully when paired with context-rich qualitative accounts grounded in local knowledge.

Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland

Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland PDF Author: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Archaeology
Languages : en
Pages : 478

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Book Description
Includes List of members.

Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society

Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society PDF Author: Royal Astronomical Society
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Astronomy
Languages : en
Pages : 688

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Book Description