Abstract
A new impetus for recollecting information seems regaining appeal, maybe heir of the “social indicators movement.” The movement was an heir to the supporters of quantification in the social sciences, as numbers were believed to be objective and scientific per se and information was considered to be a citizen’s right.
The study of society in its various dimensions has stimulated the search for and construction of statistical indicators and indices. The search for a better way of studying the progress of societies has often led to inappropriate uses of indicators and measures. GNP, for example, has been commonly considered to be an indicator of well-being. The lack of a conceptual frame for studying well-being is not the only problem, nor even the greatest. Of similar importance – or even greater – are the meager statistical skills of journalists, policymakers and – in general – the public. All together, these elements facilitate limiting the use of data in public debate.
In this chapter, I will consider the shift from political arithmetic to modern social reports (par. 1), the success of quantification in the administration of the state (par. 2) and in the struggle for the betterment of quality of life conditions led by nongovernment entities (par. 3), the misuses of quantification (par. 4), the current nonuse of quantification, and the search for contextual conditions that interfere with the transformation of information into knowledge (par. 5).
Freedom is not merely the chance to do as one pleases; neither is it merely the opportunity to choose between set alternatives. Freedom is, first of all, the chance to formulate the available choices, to argue over them – and then, the opportunity to choose. That is why freedom cannot exist without an enlarged role of human reason in human affairs (Mills 1959: 174).
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
Many authors consider statistics as a social construction (Kitsuse and Cicourel 1963; Hacking 1990; Rose 1990; Poovey 1998), by which it is possible to create an oppressive language, institutionalizing normality and abnormality. But there is no unanimity in considering normalization and individual control as an expectable result of quantification. On the contrary, the success of numbers entails freedom for the individual: Sherman (2001) state that quantification has give back to individual his own responsibility, showing him as his poverty is the result of aspects that he may control. Porter (1995, 2005) and Hess (2000, 2005) draw the attention to the introduction of the thermometer in order to take directly our own temperature, without having to contact an intermediary (the doctor and his opinion). «No doubt the quantification of body temperature is only one example of a new social technology. But the standardizations that prepared the way for quantification in the hospital and in daily life did not simply serve to document, measure, control and regulate the individual. They also somehow allowed the individual to regulate and control this social technology» (Hess 2005: 122).
- 4.
«Around 1910, the Russell Sage Foundation initiated the development of what are now called “community indicators” using processes that are remarkably like the ones that have been reestablished in the 1990s. Sage provided a grant to the Charity Organization Society (of New York) to survey industrial conditions in Pittsburgh (Smith 1991: 40–41). After the study was released in 1914, the Russell Sage Foundation was besieged with requests to fund similar studies in other cities. Since it did not have the funds to do that, the foundation provided technical advice instead. Partly as a result of this initiative, over 2,000 local surveys were taken on education, recreation, public health, crime, and general social conditions» (Cobb 1998: 6–7).
- 5.
Further examples in Lusardi and Mitchell (2009), Lusardi et al. (2009, 2010); see also the reports published by the PEW Research Center (www.peoplepress.org).
- 6.
«To be sure, even fewer people reported that they knew the official rates when the opt-out option was given to the respondent. About half as many respondents provided a “rate” answer when the opt-out option was given for the unemployment rate (26% versus 43%), the Consumer Price Index (13% versus 27%), and for the Gross Domestic Product (9% versus 23%). The data clearly indicate that people were quick to take advantage of the question skipping option» (Curtin 2007: 7).
- 7.
Between April 10 and May 15, as part of the Eurobarometer wave 67.2. It covers 30 countries and territories: the 27 EU member states, its two candidate states Croatia and Turkey, as well as the Turkish Cypriot Community (Eurobarometer 2008: 4).
- 8.
- 9.
Literacy is referred to «the ability to understand and employ printed information in daily activities, at home, at work, and in the community – to achieve one’s goals, and to develop one’s knowledge and potential»; there are three domains of literacy skills: «(a) prose literacy – the knowledge and skills needed to understand and use information from texts including editorials, news stories, brochures, and instruction manuals; (b) Document literacy – the knowledge and skills required to locate and use information contained in various formats, including job applications, payroll forms, transportation schedules, maps, tables and charts; (c) Quantitative literacy – the knowledge and skills required to apply arithmetic operations, either alone or sequentially, to numbers embedded in printed materials, such as balancing a chequebook, figuring out a tip, completing an order form or determining the amount of interest on a loan from an advertisement» (OECD 1995: 14).
- 10.
As stated by O’Donoghue (2002: 47), «the research literature contains no universally accepted definition of numeracy». Cockcroft (1982) identifies the source of the concept and the term numeracy as the Crowther Report (1959), which defined numeracy “as the mirror image of literacy” (par. 398) «We would wish ‘numerate’ to imply the possession of two attributes. The first of these is an ‘at-homeness’ with numbers and an ability to make use of mathematical skills which enable an individual to cope with the practical mathematical demands of his everyday life. The second is ability to have some appreciation and understanding of information which is presented in mathematical terms, for instance in graphs, charts or tables or by reference to percentage increase or decrease» (Cockcroft 1982: 11; cit. in O’Donoghue 2002: 47).
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Saiani, P.P. (2012). Democracy and Public Knowledge: An Issue for Social Indicators. In: Maggino, F., Nuvolati, G. (eds) Quality of life in Italy. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 48. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3898-0_12
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