Limits of the numerical : the abuses and uses of quantification / edited by Christopher Newfield, Anna Alexandrova, and Stephen John.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Newfield, Christopher, editor.

Alexandrova, Anna, 1977- editor.

John, Stephen, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Quantitative research.

Quantitative research--Case studies.

Quantitative research--Social aspects.

Education, Higher--Research--Case studies.

Education, Higher.

Health--Research--Case studies.

Health.

Climatology--Research--Case studies.

Climatology.

Climatology--Research.

Education, Higher--Research.

Health--Research.

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

317 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2022.

Summary:

"This timely collection by a diverse group of humanists challenges undue reverence or skepticism toward quantification and shows how it can be a force for good in our social lives despite its many abuses. The book focuses on quantification in climate, higher education, and health: the role of numerical estimates and targets in explaining and planning for climate change; the quantification of outcomes in teaching and research; and numbers representing health, the effectiveness of medical interventions, and well-being more broadly. One might assume that quantification would be a force for good in climate science, a force for bad in higher education, and a mixed bag in healthcare contexts. The authors complicate those narratives, uncovering, for example, epistemic problems with some core numbers in climate science. But their theme is less the problems revealed by case studies than the methodological issues common to them all. Only by stepping outside quantitative frameworks, they argue, can one appreciate what those frameworks do, how they do it, and whether they do it badly or well"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction : the changing fates of the numerical / Christopher Newfield, Anna Alexandrova, Stephen John

Expert sources of the revolt againt experts. Numbers without experts : the populist politics of quantification / Elizabeth Chatterjee

The role of the numerical in the decline of expertise / Christopher Newfield

Can narrative fix numbers? Audit narratives : making higher education manageable in learning assessment discourse / Heather Steffen

The limits of "The limits of the numerical" : rare diseases and the seductions of qualification / Trenholme Junghans

Reading numbers : literature, case histories, and quantitative analysis / Laura Mandell

When bad numbers have good social effects. Why five fruit and veg a day? Communicating, deceiving, and manipulating with numbers / Stephen John

Are numbers really as bad as they seem? A political-philosophy perspective / Gabriele Badano

The uses of the numerical for qualitative ends. When well-being becomes a number / Anna Alexandrova and Ramandeep Singh

Aligning social goals and scientific numbers : an ethical-epistemic analysis of extreme weather attribution / Greg Lusk

The purposes and provisioning of higher education : can economics and humanities perspectives be reconciled? / Aashish Mehta and Christopher Newfield.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 259-288) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Limits of the numerical.

ISBN:

9780226817132

022681713X

9780226817156

0226817156

OCLC:

1273672495

Publisher Number:

99995264282