People Who Counted: Political Arithmetic in the Eighteenth Century

Buck, Peter

doi:10.1086/352907

Cited by 54 publications

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“…Controversy persisted partly because statistical data were not readily available. The British Parliament had defeated a bill for a regular census in 1753 because it seemed “totally subversive of the last remains of English liberty” (quoted in Buck 1982:32). The United States Constitution (1787) established the first regular census (every decade) in the world, beginning in 1790 (Alterman 1969:164), which was no help for Malthus writing in 1798, since a trend in population growth could only be established after more than one census.…”

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confidence: 99%

A History of the Ecological Sciences, Part 31: Studies of Animal Populations during the 1700s

Egerton

2009

Bulletin Ecologic Soc America

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confidence: 99%

A History of the Ecological Sciences, Part 31: Studies of Animal Populations during the 1700s

Egerton

2009

Bulletin Ecologic Soc America

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“…In the words of Leibler (:135), “Statistical mapping, therefore, may not be a reflection of ‘society’; rather, it is the process by which society is defined.” In this sense, statistics lead to the simultaneous empowerment and subjection of the population. In other words, statistics both cause and depend on processes of subjectification that lead to the inclusion of the individual into society (see Buck ; Starr ). All in all, social statistics rely on the freedom of these individuals, empowering them while at the same time subjecting them to governmental power (see Bröckling, Krasmann, and Lemke :14).…”

Section: The Birth Of Modern Statisticsmentioning

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The Biopolitics of Statistics and Census in Palestine

Busse

2015

Int Polit Sociol

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This article addresses the importance of statistics for governing populations in the context of Palestine. On the basis of Michel Foucault's understanding of governmentality, I argue that social statistics represent crucial biopolitical technologies of governmentality. While statistical knowledge as a modern phenomenon originated in Western Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the case of Palestine clearly shows the importance of modern statistics beyond the OECD world. In a first step, I will elaborate on the emergence of social statistics as modern phenomena for governing populations. In this regard, the “discovery of the population” represents a fundamental prerequisite for the “birth of modern statistics” and the systematic utilization of statistical data for governing purposes. On this basis, I will argue social statistics are of crucial importance for governing the daily lives of the Palestinian population. Moreover, I will present the emergence of Palestinian statistics as a global phenomenon. It will become evident that social statistics and inferred demographic politics are essential for the sustainment of societal order in Palestine. This is particularly so regarding related inclusionary and exclusionary dynamics—namely Palestinian nation‐building on the one hand and the Palestinian–Israeli demographic contestation on the other.

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“…Es ist schon häufiger festgestellt worden, dass diese Lawine gedruckter Zahlen zu der Frage geführt hat, was dann genau gemessen wird und in welchem Rahmen die produzierten Daten geordnet und präsentiert werden können (vgl. Cullen 1975, Buck 1982, Donnelly 1998. Die Daten und die entdeckten empirischen "Gesetzmäßigkeiten" können als Indikatoren einer eigenständigen und bisher nicht beobachteten Realitätsebene interpretiert werden.…”

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Soziale Beobachtungsraster: Eine wissenssoziologische Analyse statistischer Klassifikationsschemata / Patterns of Observation: A Social Epistemology of Statistical Classification Schemes

Vanderstraeten

2006

Zeitschrift Für Soziologie

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Zusammenfassung: Seit dem Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts wurde im Bereich der Statistik (Staatswissenschaft) eine Lawine von ‚gedruckten Zahlen' produziert. Ein prominentes Beispiel dafür bildet die Bevölkerungsstatistik. In der historischsoziologischen Literatur werden den Daten, die in den vorhergehenden Jahrhunderten gesammelt und verarbeitet sind, viel Aufmerksamkeit gewidmet. In diesem Aufsatz wird aber vor allem fokussiert auf die Evolution der statistischen Methodologie und Klassifikationsschemata; dabei wird exemplarisch näher eingegangen auf die Berufsstatistik in Großbri-tannien und Belgien. Drei Merkmale werden hervorgehoben und analysiert: das Zählen von Individuen anstelle von Haushalten, die Exklusion von unbezahlter Hausarbeit, die Eliminierung von sozialem Status als Kriterium bei der Registrierung von individuellen Berufstätigkeiten. Diese Analyse der Konstruktion von statistischen Daten ist zugleich ein Beitrag zur Analyse der modernen Gesellschaft. Summary:Since the end of the eighteenth century, an avalanche of "printed numbers" has been produced in the field of statistics. Prominent examples are population statistics. In historical and sociological research, most attention has hitherto been paid to printed numbers. In this paper, however, attention is focused on the evolution of the methodology and classification schemes of these statistics in Great Britain and Belgium -especially with regard to occupational statistics. Three characteristics are highlighted: the practice of counting individuals instead of households, the exclusion of unpaid labor in the household, and the abandonment of social status as the criterion for distinguishing between occupational identities. This paper sheds light on the evolution of society via an analysis of the evolution of these kinds of statistical constructions.

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People Who Counted: Political Arithmetic in the Eighteenth Century

Cited by 54 publications

References 0 publications

A History of the Ecological Sciences, Part 31: Studies of Animal Populations during the 1700s

A History of the Ecological Sciences, Part 31: Studies of Animal Populations during the 1700s

The Biopolitics of Statistics and Census in Palestine

Soziale Beobachtungsraster: Eine wissenssoziologische Analyse statistischer Klassifikationsschemata / Patterns of Observation: A Social Epistemology of Statistical Classification Schemes

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