Limits of the Numerical

The Abuses and Uses of Quantification

Inbunden, Engelska, 2022

AvChristopher Newfield,Anna Alexandrova,Stephen John,Dr. Christopher Newfield,Dr. Anna Alexandrova,Dr. Stephen John

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This collection examines the uses of quantification in climate science, higher education, and health. Numbers are both controlling and fragile. They drive public policy, figuring into everything from college rankings to vaccine efficacy rates. At the same time, they are frequent objects of obfuscation, manipulation, or outright denial. This timely collection by a diverse group of humanists and social scientists challenges undue reverence or skepticism toward quantification and offers new ideas about how to harmonize quantitative with qualitative forms of knowledge. Limits of the Numerical focuses on quantification in several contexts: climate change; university teaching and research; and health, medicine, and well-being more broadly. This volume shows the many ways that qualitative and quantitative approaches can productively interact—how the limits of the numerical can be overcome through equitable partnerships with historical, institutional, and philosophical analysis. The authors show that we can use numbers to hold the powerful to account, but only when those numbers are themselves democratically accountable.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2022-07-13
Mått152 x 229 x 25 mm
Vikt567 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor304
FörlagThe University of Chicago Press
ISBN9780226817132

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Christopher Newfield is director of research at the Independent Social Research Foundation, London. Anna Alexandrova is professor of philosophy of science in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, where she is also a fellow of King’s College. Stephen John is the Hatton Lecturer in the Philosophy of Public Health in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, where he is also a fellow of Pembroke College.

List of Figures, Tables, and BoxIntroduction: The Changing Fates of the NumericalChristopher Newfield, Anna Alexandrova, and Stephen JohnPart IExpert Sources of the Revolt against Experts1. Numbers without Experts: The Populist Politics of QuantificationElizabeth Chatterjee2. The Role of the Numerical in the Decline of ExpertiseChristopher NewfieldPart IICan Narrative Fix Numbers?3. Audit Narratives: Making Higher Education Manageable in Learning Assessment DiscourseHeather Steffen4. The Limits of “The Limits of the Numerical”: Rare Diseases and the Seductions of QualificationTrenholme Junghans5. Reading Numbers: Literature, Case Histories, and Quantitative AnalysisLaura MandellPart IIIWhen Bad Numbers Have Good Social Effects6. Why Five Fruit and Veg a Day? Communicating, Deceiving, and Manipulating with NumbersStephen John7. Are Numbers Really as Bad as They Seem? A Political-Philosophy PerspectiveGabriele BadanoPart IVThe Uses of the Numerical for Qualitative Ends8. When Well-Being Becomes a NumberAnna Alexandrova and Ramandeep Singh9. Aligning Social Goals and Scientific Numbers: An Ethical-Epistemic Analysis of Extreme Weather AttributionGreg Lusk10. The Purposes and Provisioning of Higher Education: Can Economics and Humanities Perspectives Be Reconciled?Aashish Mehta and Christopher NewfieldAcknowledgmentsReferencesContributorsIndex