TY - BOOK ID - 85296645 TI - The World of Indicators : The Making of Governmental Knowledge through Quantification PY - 2015 SN - 1316397076 1316091260 1316393836 1107086221 1107450837 9781316393833 9781316397077 9781316091265 PB - Cambridge, England : Cambridge University Press, DB - UniCat KW - Social indicators KW - Economic indicators KW - Social policy KW - Social planning KW - Public administration KW - Social Conditions KW - Sociology & Social History KW - Social Sciences KW - National planning KW - State planning KW - Economic policy KW - Family policy KW - Social history KW - Social development planning KW - Planning KW - Administration, Public KW - Delivery of government services KW - Government services, Delivery of KW - Public management KW - Public sector management KW - Political science KW - Administrative law KW - Decentralization in government KW - Local government KW - Public officers KW - Business indicators KW - Indicators, Business KW - Indicators, Economic KW - Leading indicators KW - Economic history KW - Quality of life KW - Economic forecasting KW - Index numbers (Economics) KW - Indicators, Social KW - Social accounting KW - Social prediction KW - Statistical methods KW - Social indicators. KW - Economic indicators. KW - Social policy. KW - Statistical methods. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:85296645 AB - The twenty-first century has seen a further dramatic increase in the use of quantitative knowledge for governing social life after its explosion in the 1980s. Indicators and rankings play an increasing role in the way governmental and non-governmental organizations distribute attention, make decisions, and allocate scarce resources. Quantitative knowledge promises to be more objective and straightforward as well as more transparent and open for public debate than qualitative knowledge, thus producing more democratic decision-making. However, we know little about the social processes through which this knowledge is constituted nor its effects. Understanding how such numeric knowledge is produced and used is increasingly important as proliferating technologies of quantification alter modes of knowing in subtle and often unrecognized ways. This book explores the implications of the global multiplication of indicators as a specific technology of numeric knowledge production used in governance. ER -