Measuring Human Rights, Gender Violence, and Sex Trafficking, Merry

/bo23044232.html

  • The Seductions of Quantification: Measuring Human Rights, Gender Violence, and Sex Trafficking, Merry

    http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo23044232.html

    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.

    Mais sur Facebook, Adia Benton a émis quelques réserves sur ce livre, les voici :

    So for someone who’s an ethnographer of quantification practices, she knew very little about rationale and actual practices outside the UN — which is where a lot of this indicator work is done. I happened to work for an NGO collecting data on violence against women for these indicators. She seemed genuinely surprised when I explained how these conversations go, and I wasn’t sure how UN indicators, while interesting, mattered for that everyday work of monitoring and evaluating programs and justifying your work to donors.

    This, to me, is important for understanding power in institutions, the uses of numbers, everyday negotiations re to what numbers mean, who they work for, etc. She clearly went to lots of UN meetings where they debated the construction of indicators.

    All that said, I’m sure the book is fine, well written, very securely anthropological. Will probably win an award...

    #quantitatif #indice #Index #indicateurs #statistiques #critères cc @simplicissimus @fil et @freakonometrics