- Examines the role of numbers for and in politics
- Argues that numbers are a connecting device between science and politics
- Sheds light on the current distrust in expert and scientific knowledge.
Buy this book
- About this book
-
This study explores the dynamic relationship between science, numbers and politics. What can scientific evidence realistically do in and for politics? The volume contributes to that debate by focusing on the role of “numbers” as a means by which knowledge is expressed and through which that knowledge can be transferred into the political realm. Based on the assumption that numbers are constantly being actively created, translated, and used, and that they need to be interpreted in their respective and particular contexts, it examines how numbers and quantifications are made ‘politically workable’, examining their production, their transition into the sphere of politics and their eventual use therein. Key questions that are addressed include: In what ways does scientific evidence affect political decision-making in the contemporary world? How and why did quantification come to play such an important role within democratic politics? What kind of work do scientific evidence and numbers do politically?
- About the authors
-
Markus J. Prutsch is Senior Investigator and Administrator at the European Parliament, and a fellow of both the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Heidelberg University, Germany. He studied history and political science in Austria and Germany, and was a researcher at the European University Institute and the University of Helsinki, Finland. His work has been awarded on several occasions.
- Table of contents (16 chapters)
-
-
“Working Numbers”—Introductory Remarks
Pages 1-17
-
Historical Genesis of the Relation Between Science, Numbers and Politics—Part I Introduction
Pages 21-27
-
“Lies, Damned Lies and State-istics”: Counting “Real Inhabitants” in the Census (Belgium, 1846–1947)
Pages 29-56
-
“What Use Is It in the Long Run to Resist Something That Is Bound to Happen Anyway?” The Statistical Mind Settling in Nineteenth-Century Politics
Pages 57-83
-
Science, Numbers and Colonialism in the African Great Lakes, 1820–1910
Pages 85-119
-
Table of contents (16 chapters)
Recommended for you
Bibliographic Information
- Bibliographic Information
-
- Book Title
- Science, Numbers and Politics
- Editors
-
- Markus Prutsch
- Copyright
- 2019
- Publisher
- Palgrave Macmillan
- Copyright Holder
- The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
- eBook ISBN
- 978-3-030-11208-0
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-030-11208-0
- Hardcover ISBN
- 978-3-030-11207-3
- Edition Number
- 1
- Number of Pages
- XV, 386
- Number of Illustrations
- 6 b/w illustrations, 4 illustrations in colour
- Topics
