Transactions statistiques au XIX e siècle

Abstract

Résumé La seconde moitié du xix e siècle est une période d’intensification des échanges scientifiques internationaux, alors même que les États-nations européens se consolident et développent, pour les principaux d’entre eux, des stratégies économiques et militaires impériales. Ce processus est décrit à partir du cas des statisticiens qui, dès les années 1850, ont stabilisé des réunions internationales propres à leur spécialité à la fois scientifique et administrative. L’intensification de la circulation concrète des personnes et des biens et le succès de l’idéologie libre-échangiste dans une Europe pourtant formée pour l’essentiel de gouvernements néo-absolutistes, ont encouragé la formation d’un réseau de spécialistes qui, de congrès internationaux en expositions universelles, a accumulé une forme d’autorité particulière, transnationale, entre 1850 et 1870. La génération suivante de ces spécialistes a renationalisé ce capital international dans chaque pays pendant les deux décennies suivantes, tout en renouvelant leurs échanges internationaux. La circulation des ouvrages, leur conservation et leur catalogage sont autant d’indices d’un processus long, complexe et localement différencié.

The International Statistical Congress (1853—1876): Knowledge Transfers and their Limits

“…As the French historical sociologist Brian observed, the congresses helped to build an intellectual capital that formed the basis of the subsequent transnational authority of statistics. 42 The long-term indirect and unintended consequences of the congresses were perhaps more significant than the express wishes of the protagonists: the creation of the International Statistical Institute in 1885, the growth of national statistical bureaus, the use of efficient methods (e.g. the graphical method), the spread of ideas on social reform, and last but not least, the intensification of nation-building processes throughout Europe.…”

Household and State-istics: Cornerstones of Society in Population Censuses (Belgium, 1846–1947)

“…While Quetelet remained in charge of the censuses conducted in 1856 and 1866 in Belgium, he also defined the objectives of the Congrès International de Statistique , whose sessions were actively attended by many high-level “state servants” from countries throughout Europe and America, for more than two decades. As other researchers time and again testify, Quetelet's focus on the development of uniform methods and conventions had considerable impact on a broad range of statistical traditions both in the nineteenth century and afterward (e.g., Bracke 2008: 131–67; Brian 1989, 2002; Desrosières 2008: 7–59; Porter 1986: 41–55; Prévost and Beaud 2012: 49–62; Randeraad 2011). Indeed, “those who attended pushed their governments to adopt a standard template for census making on the Queteletian model” (Curtis 2002: 20–21).…”

“…Its successor, the International Statistical Institute , was founded in 1885. The detailed guidelines and instructions, issued by the Congrès and its successor, provide evidence of the “path-dependent” character of the statistical regimes in national and international contexts (Brian 2002; Randeraad 2011).…”

Toward a transnational history of the social sciences

“…One of the first models of the international social science organizations was the international congresses of statistics, which were held from 1853 to 1876, and were founded by the Belgian astronomer and statistical entrepreneur Adolphe Quetelet (Brian, 2002). Every two or three years they brought together hundreds of participants, both academic and administrative statisticians, discussing the technical, scientific, and organizational progress of their work.…”