Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review“
Limits of the Numerical shows with compelling detail, theoretical vision, and political urgency just how and why numbers matter. As J. L. Austin and Judith Butler showed us how we do things with words, the authors of
Limits of the Numerical show us how we do things with numbers.” * Chad Wellmon, University of Virginia *
“The availability and power of numbers in our ‘data-driven world’ have never been greater, and, for just that reason, are greatly contested.
Limits of the Numerical explores the paradoxes of quantitative reasoning that have arisen as a corollary of its power and recognizes that a blind reverence for numbers undermines expertise as much as it supports it. These stories of numbers are inescapably human ones.” * Theodore M. Porter, University of California, Los Angeles *
“In the confusing context of both the pandemic and global warming, this compelling book is a timely unraveling of the uses and abuses of statistical models, quantified measures, big data, and numerical targets.
Limits of the Numerical paves the way for renewed scientific controversies and public debates on the work of quantification and its politics.” * Isabelle Bruno, University of Lille and Academic Institute of France (IUF) *
Table of ContentsList of Figures, Tables, and Box
Introduction: The Changing Fates of the Numerical
Christopher Newfield, Anna Alexandrova, and Stephen John
Part I
Expert Sources of the Revolt against Experts
1. Numbers without Experts: The Populist Politics of Quantification
Elizabeth Chatterjee
2. The Role of the Numerical in the Decline of Expertise
Christopher Newfield
Part II
Can Narrative Fix Numbers?
3. Audit Narratives: Making Higher Education Manageable in Learning Assessment Discourse
Heather Steffen
4. The Limits of “The Limits of the Numerical”: Rare Diseases and the Seductions of Qualification
Trenholme Junghans
5. Reading Numbers: Literature, Case Histories, and Quantitative Analysis
Laura Mandell
Part III
When Bad Numbers Have Good Social Effects
6. Why
Five Fruit and Veg a Day? Communicating, Deceiving, and Manipulating with Numbers
Stephen John
7. Are Numbers Really as Bad as They Seem? A Political-Philosophy Perspective
Gabriele Badano
Part IV
The Uses of the Numerical for Qualitative Ends
8. When Well-Being Becomes a Number
Anna Alexandrova and Ramandeep Singh
9. Aligning Social Goals and Scientific Numbers: An Ethical-Epistemic Analysis of Extreme Weather Attribution
Greg Lusk
10. The Purposes and Provisioning of Higher Education: Can Economics and Humanities Perspectives Be Reconciled?
Aashish Mehta and Christopher Newfield
Acknowledgments
References
Contributors
Index
