The Politics of Numbers

The Politics of Numbers PDF Author: William Alonso
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN: 1610440021
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 491

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Book Description
The Politics of Numbers is the first major study of the social and political forces behind the nation's statistics. In more than a dozen essays, its editors and authors look at the controversies and choices embodied in key decisions about how we count—in measuring the state of the economy, for example, or enumerating ethnic groups. They also examine the implications of an expanding system of official data collection, of new computer technology, and of the shift of information resources into the private sector. A Volume in the Russell Sage Foundation Census Series

The Politics of Numbers

The Politics of Numbers PDF Author: William Alonso
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN: 1610440021
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 491

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Politics of Numbers is the first major study of the social and political forces behind the nation's statistics. In more than a dozen essays, its editors and authors look at the controversies and choices embodied in key decisions about how we count—in measuring the state of the economy, for example, or enumerating ethnic groups. They also examine the implications of an expanding system of official data collection, of new computer technology, and of the shift of information resources into the private sector. A Volume in the Russell Sage Foundation Census Series

The New Politics of Numbers

The New Politics of Numbers PDF Author: Andrea Mennicken
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030782018
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 514

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Book Description
This open access book offers unique insight into how and where ideas and instruments of quantification have been adopted, and how they have come to matter. Rather than asking what quantification is, New Politics of Numbers explores what quantification does, its manifold consequences in multiple domains. It scrutinizes the power of numbers in terms of the changing relations between numbers and democracy, the politics of evidence, and dreams and schemes of bettering society. The book engages Foucault inspired studies of quantification and the economics of convention in a critical dialogue. In so doing, it provides a rich account of the plurality of possible ways in which numbers have come to govern, highlighting not only their disciplinary effects, but also the collective mobilization capacities quantification can offer. This book will be invaluable reading for academics and graduate students in a wide variety of disciplines, as well as policymakers interested in the opportunities and pitfalls of governance by numbers.

Science, Numbers and Politics

Science, Numbers and Politics PDF Author: Markus J. Prutsch
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 303011208X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
This study explores the dynamic relationship between science, numbers and politics. What can scientific evidence realistically do in and for politics? The volume contributes to that debate by focusing on the role of “numbers” as a means by which knowledge is expressed and through which that knowledge can be transferred into the political realm. Based on the assumption that numbers are constantly being actively created, translated, and used, and that they need to be interpreted in their respective and particular contexts, it examines how numbers and quantifications are made ‘politically workable’, examining their production, their transition into the sphere of politics and their eventual use therein. Key questions that are addressed include: In what ways does scientific evidence affect political decision-making in the contemporary world? How and why did quantification come to play such an important role within democratic politics? What kind of work do scientific evidence and numbers do politically?

The Politics of Large Numbers

The Politics of Large Numbers PDF Author: Alain Desrosières
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674009691
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
Begins with study of history of statistics, and shows how the evolution of modern statistics has been inextricably bound up with the knowledge and power of governments.

How Numbers Rule the World

How Numbers Rule the World PDF Author: Doctor Lorenzo Fioramonti
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1780322704
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
Numbers dominate global politics and, as a result, our everyday lives. Credit ratings steer financial markets and can make or break the future of entire nations. GDP drives our economies. Stock market indices flood our media and national debates. Statistical calculations define how we deal with climate change, poverty and sustainability. But what is behind these numbers? In How Numbers Rule the World, Lorenzo Fioramonti reveals the hidden agendas underpinning the use of statistics and those who control them. Most worryingly, he shows how numbers have been used as a means to reinforce the grip of markets on our social and political life, curtailing public participation and rational debate. An innovative and timely exposé of the politics, power and contestation of numbers.

Calculated Values

Calculated Values PDF Author: William Deringer
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674971876
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 439

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Book Description
Modern political culture features a deep-seated faith in the power of numbers. But quantitative evidence has not always been revered, as William Deringer shows. After the 1688 Revolution, as Britons learned to fight by the numbers, their enthusiasm for figures arose not from efforts to find objective truths but from the turmoil of politics itself.

Sex, Drugs, and Body Counts

Sex, Drugs, and Body Counts PDF Author: Peter Andreas
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801457068
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
At least 200,000-250,000 people died in the war in Bosnia. "There are three million child soldiers in Africa." "More than 650,000 civilians have been killed as a result of the U.S. occupation of Iraq." "Between 600,000 and 800,000 women are trafficked across borders every year." "Money laundering represents as much as 10 percent of global GDP." "Internet child porn is a $20 billion-a-year industry." These are big, attention-grabbing numbers, frequently used in policy debates and media reporting. Peter Andreas and Kelly M. Greenhill see only one problem: these numbers are probably false. Their continued use and abuse reflect a much larger and troubling pattern: policymakers and the media naively or deliberately accept highly politicized and questionable statistical claims about activities that are extremely difficult to measure. As a result, we too often become trapped by these mythical numbers, with perverse and counterproductive consequences. This problem exists in myriad policy realms. But it is particularly pronounced in statistics related to the politically charged realms of global crime and conflict-numbers of people killed in massacres and during genocides, the size of refugee flows, the magnitude of the illicit global trade in drugs and human beings, and so on. In Sex, Drugs, and Body Counts, political scientists, anthropologists, sociologists, and policy analysts critically examine the murky origins of some of these statistics and trace their remarkable proliferation. They also assess the standard metrics used to evaluate policy effectiveness in combating problems such as terrorist financing, sex trafficking, and the drug trade.

The Numbers Game

The Numbers Game PDF Author: Michael Blastland
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9781592404230
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Numbers saturate the news, politics, and life. The average person can use basic knowledge and common sense to put the never-ending onslaught of facts and figures in their proper place.

Economic Controversies

Economic Controversies PDF Author: Murray N. Rothbard
Publisher: Ludwig von Mises Institute
ISBN: 1610165233
Category : Economic policy
Languages : en
Pages : 1017

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Book Description


Numbers in India's Periphery

Numbers in India's Periphery PDF Author: Ankush Agrawal
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108775519
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 421

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Book Description
This book analyses the quality of statistics such as geographic area, census population and sample survey statistics in a developing country. Using field interviews, archival sources, and secondary data covering the last seven decades, it explores the shifting relations between various kinds of statistics over their lifecycles and charts their cradle-to-grave political career. It uncovers a mutually constitutive relationship between data, development, and democracy and offers an exciting account of how government statistics are social artefacts dynamically shaped by political and economic factors. The book also quantifies the impact of data quality on the statistics of interest to policy makers such as household consumption expenditure and federal transfers. Numbers in India's Periphery makes a major contribution to the growing literature on the political economy of statistics in developing countries through a novel analysis of the shifting determinants of the nature of data in North East India.