Making up People: Classification and Quantification in the Population Census. Part I

The relevance of population indicators for democratic politics has been widely acknowledged in the still young field of Quantification Studies. A basic assumption in this line of reasoning is that there is an inherently political dimension to what seems to be methodological or technocratic issues in the construction and use of numbers in politics. Instead of describing reality, census taking shapes reality; it makes up people. The planned session picks up this argument by focusing on how populations are included, classified and quantified in the census and how these data are used in politics.

The production of population indicators is often largely hidden from public view, while indeed defining and classifying the population(s) to be considered in public policy. Demographic data are among the most reliable data for public policy formulation, which is why it is important that all potential addressees of public policy be counted as such. In some countries, public debates around population categories arise periodically when a new census is scheduled. In other countries, census taking seems to be a rather technocratic and depoliticized endeavor. But being counted is not only relevant for “statistical citizenship” in present politics, expectations about the future are also often narrated by using demographic data, which is typically based on the census.

We welcome conceptual as well as empirical papers addressing current issues of census taking.