This article analyzes a historical shift from analogue to digital measurement regimes that have produced international health metrics. The historical comparative study shows that each of these measurement regimes was deeply influential in shaping the international health polity. The article conceptualizes measurement regimes based on science and technology studies as techno-social assemblages producing international health metrics. Building on polity theory, I argue that these regimes exert participation, problematization, and mode-of intervention effects in international politics. I analyze how the analogue international regime of measuring health acquired dominance after the Second World War. It built on national statistical infrastructures and international organizations and problematized international health politics as guiding nations along the development path of the Global North. It limited participation to medical and statistical experts. The digital regime—influential since the 1990s—is embedded into a private research institute and focuses on the digital recalculation of health metrics. It has shaped the field of international health politics as continuously searching for neglected problems, extended participation to a large group of passive users and supports cost-effective interventions. This article contributes conceptually and empirically to the international political sociology of health. It describes how socio-technical assemblages like measurement regimes shape international polities. Cet article analyse le passage historique des régimes de mesure analogiques aux régimes numériques qui ont produit des métriques de santé internationales. L’étude comparative historique montre que chacun de ces régimes de mesure a profondément façonné la politique de santé internationale. Cet article conceptualise les régimes de mesure en se basant sur des études scientifiques et technologiques en tant qu'assemblages techno-sociaux producteurs de métriques de santé internationales. Je soutiens que ces régimes exercent des effets de participation, de problématisation et de mode d'intervention dans la politique internationale en m'appuyant sur la théorie politique. J'analyse la manière dont le régime analogique international de mesure de la santé a acquis une position dominante après la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Il reposait sur des infrastructures statistiques nationales, des organisations internationales et une politique de santé internationale problématisée pour guider les nations sur la voie du développement des pays du Nord. Il limitait la participation aux experts médicaux et statisticiens. Le régime numérique, qui est influent depuis les années 90, est intégré à un institut de recherche privé et se concentre sur le recalcul numérique des métriques de santé. Il a façonné le champ de la politique internationale de santé de par sa recherche continue des problèmes négligés, son extension de la participation à un large groupe d'utilisateurs passifs et son soutien des interventions rentables. Cet article contribue conceptuellement et empiriquement à la sociologie politique internationale dans le domaine de la santé. Il décrit la manière dont les assemblages socio-techniques tels que les régimes de mesure façonnent les politiques internationales. En este artículo se analiza el cambio histórico de los regímenes de medición analógicos a los digitales, los cuales produjeron mediciones sanitarias internacionales. El estudio comparativo histórico muestra que cada uno de estos regímenes de medición configuró profundamente la política sanitaria internacional. En el artículo se conceptualizan los regímenes de medición basados en estudios científicos y tecnológicos como sistemas tecnosociales que producen mediciones sanitarias internacionales. Partiendo de la teoría de sistemas de gobiernos, sostengo que estos regímenes producen efectos de participación, de problematización y de modo de intervención en la política internacional. También analizo cómo el régimen internacional análogo de medición sanitaria adquirió poder después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Este se basó en las infraestructuras estadísticas nacionales y en las organizaciones internacionales y problematizó la política sanitaria internacional como guía para las naciones en el camino de desarrollo del hemisferio norte. Limitó la participación a expertos en medicina y estadística. El régimen digital, que ejerce su influencia desde la década de 1990, está integrado en un instituto de investigación privado y se centra en el recálculo digital de las mediciones sanitarias. Le ha dado forma al ámbito de la política sanitaria internacional, ya que no deja de buscar problemas que han sido ignorados para solucionar, ha ampliado la participación a un gran grupo de usuarios pasivos y apoya las intervenciones rentables. Este artículo contribuye en términos conceptuales y empíricos a la sociología política internacional del ámbito de la salud. Describe cómo los sistemas sociotécnicos como los regímenes de medición determinan las políticas internacionales.

The quest for diffusible community health worker projects and the pitfalls of scaling culture Researchers of community health worker (CHW) models in many countries are looking for ways to scale without losing one of their main advantages, their context-sensitivity. This paper looks at one research strategy to make CHW projects scalable, namely by developing a generic notion of culture-sensitivity. Based on in-depth qualitative analysis, we reconstruct how 'culture' has been enshrined in a US-based CHW project and specifically in the artefact of a binder with teaching materials for vulnerable mothers. The inscription of generalized, culture-sensitive spaces into the binder did allow the Project to comply with standards of evidence-based medicine while respecting community self-determination and made space for creative and competent CHW practices. Yet at the same time, it took away from more substantive conceptions of community engagement and from community empowerment through CHWs. Our analysis highlights how the focus on culture can invisibilise and displace the importance of competent CHW practice and processes of community engagement.

Digitalization and social media established world-encompassing publics that engage with international organizations. While scholarship has analyzed how international organizations communicate with such digital publics, this article determines who participates in these publics. We created a novel dataset to map the UN’s digital public on Twitter and analyzed the bios of 243,168 accounts that have interacted with the UN. Members of this public provide self-identifications (such as researcher, consultant, or scientist) that indicate a professional interest in the UN. We analyzed clusters of users that self-identify with similar words. We find high heterogeneity in the UN’s digital public: Clusters of professional, academic, and organizational users suggest that the technocratic history of international organizations reflects in the members of its digital public. At the same time, the digital public of the UN extends to very different groups (human rights activists and K-Pop fans feature in the UN’s public on Twitter). We demonstrate for future research how multiple correspondence analysis can reveal clusters in unstructured biographical data. The article contributes the first analysis of self-identifications in digital publics of global politics.