Quantification and Power: Values, Normative Agendas and Policy Paradigms behind Numbers. Part I

The role of numbers in governing societies, organisations, territories and people has been increasingly attracting attention of scholars from different fields of study, including sociology, STS, anthropology, political science. Studies on quantification have indicated that numbers, rather than being instruments of rationalisation and objectification, are carriers of values and are often deeply political in nature (Espeland and Sauder 2016; Espeland and Stevens 2009). This is inherent in both their development and their deployment in decision-making processes. Numbers provide legitimacy to relations of domination, normative agendas and policy paradigms (Rottenburg et al. 2015). They serve as tools of normalisation (Foucault 1977) – they help establish norms and make it possible to measure, order and compare entities (states, organisations, individuals) according to these norms. However, through mechanical objectivity (Porter 1995) – perceiving numbers as based on strict statistical procedures, and therefore impersonal and neutral – their normative dimension often remains hidden. It allows for the obfuscation of power relations and interests involved in their production and use, which poses threats to democratic accountability – especially considering contemporary crises such as political polarisation, the COVID-19 pandemic, or climate change.

This session will explore the normative dimension of numbers and its political implications, as well as their ability to conceal interest under the guise of objectivity or technicality. We welcome empirical and theoretical papers that focus on the mechanisms through which power relations, normative agendas and policy paradigms are legitimised and reproduced by numbers, and that problematise quantification practices and processes.