TY  - JOUR
TI  - Governing by Numbers - Key Indicators and the Politics of Expectations: An Introduction
AU  - Bartl, Walter
AU  - Papilloud, Christian
AU  - Terracher-Lipinski, Audrey
PY  - 2019
LA  - eng
KW  - Sociology & anthropology
KW  - Soziologie
KW  - Anthropologie
KW  - key indicators
KW  - politics of expectations
KW  - genesis and use of indicators
KW  - Allgemeine Soziologie
KW  - Makrosoziologie
KW  - spezielle Theorien und Schulen
KW  - Entwicklung und Geschichte der Soziologie
KW  - General Sociology
KW  - Basic Research
KW  - General Concepts and History of Sociology
KW  - Sociological Theories
KW  - indicator research
KW  - comparison of methods
KW  - future
KW  - political decision
KW  - quantification
KW  - measurement
KW  - construction of indicators
KW  - institutionalization
KW  - decision making
KW  - Methodenvergleich
KW  - politische Entscheidung
KW  - Zukunft
KW  - Indikatorenbildung
KW  - Entscheidungsfindung
KW  - Messung
KW  - Quantifizierung
KW  - Indikatorenforschung
KW  - Institutionalisierung
KW  - 30300
KW  - 10200
AB  - In this special issue of Historical Social Research, indicators are considered epistemic devices that render the world governable by quantification. While endowed with an aura of objectivity, indicators are not neutral devices. Instead they transform the world they claim to describe. Against the backdrop of a global proliferation of indicators, we argue in favour of research that strategically focuses on the processes that lead to the institutionalisation and systematic use of key indicators in politics compared to cases in which these processes fail. This type of research strategy could enhance the accumulation of systematic knowledge as well as the relevance of social studies of quantification. Furthermore, we propose a heuristic for analysing how indicators are involved in shaping imaginations of the future following the three distinct dimensions of meaning (factual, social, temporal) as introduced by Luhmann. We also review diachronic and synchronic approaches to analysing the genesis and use of indicators in order to derive testable hypotheses about the gap between indicator design and policy use. Finally, we introduce the articles of this special issue.
UR  - https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/handle/document/61930
UR  - https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.44.2019.2.7-43
DO  - 10.12759/hsr.44.2019.2.7-43
T2  - Historical social research: HSR-Retrospective (HSR-Retro) = Historische Sozialforschung
VL  - 44
IS  - 2
SN  - 2366-6846
SN  - 0172-6404
SP  - 7-43
UR  - https://www.pollux-fid.de/r/ssoar-oai:gesis.izsoz.de:document/61930
H1  - Pollux (Fachinformationsdienst Politikwissenschaft)
ER  -