The Seductions Of Quantification
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The Seductions Of Quantification
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Author : Sally Engle Merry
language : en
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Release Date : 2016-06-10
The Seductions Of Quantification written by Sally Engle Merry and has been published by University of Chicago Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2016-06-10 with Social Science categories.
We live in a world where seemingly everything can be measured. We rely on indicators to translate social phenomena into simple, quantified terms, which in turn can be used to guide individuals, organizations, and governments in establishing policy. Yet counting things requires finding a way to make them comparable. And in the process of translating the confusion of social life into neat categories, we inevitably strip it of context and meaning—and risk hiding or distorting as much as we reveal. With The Seductions of Quantification, leading legal anthropologist Sally Engle Merry investigates the techniques by which information is gathered and analyzed in the production of global indicators on human rights, gender violence, and sex trafficking. Although such numbers convey an aura of objective truth and scientific validity, Merry argues persuasively that measurement systems constitute a form of power by incorporating theories about social change in their design but rarely explicitly acknowledging them. For instance, the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report, which ranks countries in terms of their compliance with antitrafficking activities, assumes that prosecuting traffickers as criminals is an effective corrective strategy—overlooking cultures where women and children are frequently sold by their own families. As Merry shows, indicators are indeed seductive in their promise of providing concrete knowledge about how the world works, but they are implemented most successfully when paired with context-rich qualitative accounts grounded in local knowledge.
Trust In Numbers
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Author : Theodore M. Porter
language : en
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Release Date : 2020-08-18
Trust In Numbers written by Theodore M. Porter and has been published by Princeton University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2020-08-18 with Science categories.
A foundational work on historical and social studies of quantification What accounts for the prestige of quantitative methods? The usual answer is that quantification is desirable in social investigation as a result of its successes in science. Trust in Numbers questions whether such success in the study of stars, molecules, or cells should be an attractive model for research on human societies, and examines why the natural sciences are highly quantitative in the first place. Theodore Porter argues that a better understanding of the attractions of quantification in business, government, and social research brings a fresh perspective to its role in psychology, physics, and medicine. Quantitative rigor is not inherent in science but arises from political and social pressures, and objectivity derives its impetus from cultural contexts. In a new preface, the author sheds light on the current infatuation with quantitative methods, particularly at the intersection of science and bureaucracy.
Measuring Human Rights
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Author : Todd Landman
language : en
Publisher: Routledge
Release Date : 2009-12-04
Measuring Human Rights written by Todd Landman and has been published by Routledge this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2009-12-04 with Law categories.
The measurement of human rights has long been debated within the various academic disciplines that focus on human rights, as well as within the larger international community of practitioners working in the field of human rights. Written by leading experts in the field, this is the most up-to-date and comprehensive book on how to measure human rights. Measuring Human Rights: draws explicitly on the international law of human rights to derive the content of human rights that ought to be measured contains a comprehensive methodological framework for operationalizing this human rights content into human rights measures includes separate chapters on the methods, strengths and biases of different human rights measures, including events-based, standards-based, survey-based, and socio-economic and administrative statistics covers measures of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights includes a complete bibliography, as well as sources and locations for data sets useful for the measurement of human rights. This volume offers a significant and timely addition to this important area of work in the field of human rights, and will be of interest to academics and NGOs, INGOs, international governmental organizations, international financial institutions, and national governments themselves.
The Metric Society
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Author : Steffen Mau
language : en
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Release Date : 2019-02-25
The Metric Society written by Steffen Mau and has been published by John Wiley & Sons this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2019-02-25 with Social Science categories.
In today’s world, numbers are in the ascendancy. Societies dominated by star ratings, scores, likes and lists are rapidly emerging, as data are collected on virtually every aspect of our lives. From annual university rankings, ratings agencies and fitness tracking technologies to our credit score and health status, everything and everybody is measured and evaluated. In this important new book, Steffen Mau offers a critical analysis of this increasingly pervasive phenomenon. While the original intention behind the drive to quantify may have been to build trust and transparency, Mau shows how metrics have in fact become a form of social conditioning. The ubiquitous language of ranking and scoring has changed profoundly our perception of value and status. What is more, through quantification, our capacity for competition and comparison has expanded significantly – we can now measure ourselves against others in practically every area. The rise of quantification has created and strengthened social hierarchies, transforming qualitative differences into quantitative inequalities that play a decisive role in shaping the life chances of individuals. This timely analysis of the pernicious impact of quantification will appeal to students and scholars across the social sciences, as well as anyone concerned by the cult of numbers and its impact on our lives and societies today.
Millennium Development Goals
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Author : Sakiko Fukuda-Parr
language : en
Publisher: Routledge
Release Date : 2017-07-14
Millennium Development Goals written by Sakiko Fukuda-Parr and has been published by Routledge this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2017-07-14 with Political Science categories.
Heralded as a success that mobilized support for development, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) ushered in an era of setting development agendas by setting global goals. This book critically evaluates the MDG experience from the capabilities and human rights perspectives, and questions the use of quantitative targets as an instrument of global governance. It provides an account of their origins, trajectory and influence in shaping the policy agenda, and ideas about international development during the first 15 years of the 21st century. The chapters explore: • whether the goals are adequate as benchmarks for the transformative vision of the Millennium Declaration; • how the goals came to be formulated the way they were, drawing on interviews with key actors who were involved in the process; • how the goals exercised influence through framing to shape policy agendas on the part of both developing countries and the international community; • the political economy that drove the formulation of the goals and their consequences on the agendas of the South and the North; • the effects of quantification and indicators on ideas and action; and • the lessons to be drawn for using numeric goals to promote global priorities. Representing a significant body of work on the MDGs in its multiple dimensions, compiled here for the first time as a single collection that tells the whole definitive story, this book provides a comprehensive resource. It will be of great interest to students, researchers and policymakers in the fields of development, human rights, international political economy, and governance by numeric indicators.
Caring Capitalism
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Author : Emily Barman
language : en
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Release Date : 2016-04-08
Caring Capitalism written by Emily Barman and has been published by Cambridge University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2016-04-08 with Business & Economics categories.
The book analyzes the changing meaning and measure of social value in an era of caring capitalism.
Fulfilling Social And Economic Rights
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Author : Sakiko Fukuda-Parr
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 2015-01-02
Fulfilling Social And Economic Rights written by Sakiko Fukuda-Parr and has been published by Oxford University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2015-01-02 with Political Science categories.
One of the most ambitious legacies of the 20th century was the universal commitment to ensure freedom from want as a human right. But to what extent are countries across the world living up to this commitment? This path breaking book develops an innovative, evidence-based index for comparing performance on education, food, health, work and housing across very differently situated countries and over time. It explores the factors influencing performance and provides empirical evidence to resolve some long standing controversies over the principle of "progressive realization". By defying the boundaries of traditional research disciplines, this work fundamentally advances our knowledge about the status of and factors promoting social and economic rights fulfillment at the dawn of the 21st century.
Colonizing Hawai I
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Author : Sally Engle Merry
language : en
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Release Date : 2020-12-08
Colonizing Hawai I written by Sally Engle Merry and has been published by Princeton University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2020-12-08 with Social Science categories.
How does law transform family, sexuality, and community in the fractured social world characteristic of the colonizing process? The law was a cornerstone of the so-called civilizing process of nineteenth-century colonialism. It was simultaneously a means of transformation and a marker of the seductive idea of civilization. Sally Engle Merry reveals how, in Hawai'i, indigenous Hawaiian law was displaced by a transplanted Anglo-American law as global movements of capitalism, Christianity, and imperialism swept across the islands. The new law brought novel systems of courts, prisons, and conceptions of discipline and dramatically changed the marriage patterns, work lives, and sexual conduct of the indigenous people of Hawai'i.
Gender Violence At The U S Mexico Border
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Author : HŽctor Dom’nguez-Ruvalcaba
language : en
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Release Date : 2010-03-15
Gender Violence At The U S Mexico Border written by HŽctor Dom’nguez-Ruvalcaba and has been published by University of Arizona Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2010-03-15 with Social Science categories.
The U.S.ÐMexico border is frequently presented by contemporary media as a violent and dangerous place. But that is not a new perception. For decades the border has been constructed as a topographic metaphor for all forms of illegality, in which an ineffable link between space and violence is somehow assumed. The sociological and cultural implications of violence have recently emerged at the forefront of academic discussions about the border. And yet few studies have been devoted to one of its most disturbing manifestations: gender violence. This book analyzes this pervasive phenomenon, including the femicides in Ciudad Ju‡rez that have come to exemplify, at least for the media, its most extreme manifestation. Contributors to this volume propose that the study of gender-motivated violence requires interpretive and analytical strategies that draw on methods reaching across the divide between the social sciences and the humanities. Through such an interdisciplinary conversation, the book examines how such violence is (re)presented in oral narratives, newspaper reports, films and documentaries, novels, TV series, and legal discourse. It also examines the role that the media have played in this process, as well as the legal initiatives that might address this pressing social problem. Together these essays offer a new perspective on the implications of, and connections between, gendered forms of violence and topics such as mechanisms of social violence, the micro-social effects of economic models, the asymmetries of power in local, national, and transnational configurations, and the particular rhetoric, aesthetics, and ethics of discourses that represent violence.