À propos de l’emprise du chiffre

Chiapello, Ève; Eyraud, Christelle; Lorino, Philippe; Supiot, Alain; Lamendour, Ève; Lemarchand, Yannick

doi:10.3917/eh.079.0174

Cited by 8 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 1 publication

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…128 This brings us to a general problem, summed up elsewhere by Alain Supiot: "A quantified indicator necessarily becomes a bad indicator if it merges with the objective assigned to the action, … as soon as the numbers are used as instruments of control." 129 By examining the interplay of national and international actors more closely, Jerven might have better captured and described the disciplinary power of these numbers, in the Foucauldian sense of the term, as well as the negotiations to which they give rise and which he barely mentions. 130 The effects of this interplay between the different actors could thus be superimposed onto problems relating to the lack of statistical resources, which the author rightly highlights.…”

Section: Workers and Organizations Producing And Using Numbersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Poor Numbers: Statistical Chains and the Political Economy of Numbers

Labrousse¹

2016

Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Morten Jerven'sPoor Numberssheds light on the acute fragility of African statistics, itself linked to the precarious conditions in which aggregates are produced. As patchy and problematic as they are, these numbers are nevertheless ubiquitous as instruments of proof and tools of government. Quantified fictions take shape in complex statistical chains that stretch from their producers to the economists who use them, and are mediated by international organizations. Focusing on the criterion of accuracy,Poor Numberspowerfully conveys its message of “garbage in, garbage out,” but leaves important questions related to the relevance of statistics unanswered. The history, sociology, and political economy of numbers sketched by Jerven merit closer consideration with a view to the following: identifying the connections between evolving state forms and the development of statistics; establishing a historical ethnography of the organizations that produce and use numbers; understanding the growing role of multinationals in the political economy of statistics; taking a less conciliatory view of the involvement of international organizations; and, last but not least, denaturalizing the dominant economic categories by integrating the plurality of economic approaches to statistics. The article concludes with a call for a comparative political economy of numbers that would no longer consider the African case in isolation, and would work against the idea that Africa has not entered statistical history, or has only done so “by mistake.”

show abstract

Section: Workers and Organizations Producing And Using Numbersmentioning

confidence: 99%