The Social Sciences of Quantification

1. Introduction. The Social Sciences of Quantification in France: An Overview
Isabelle Bruno, Florence Jany-Catrice, Béatrice Touchelay

Part I. Sociology of Quantification: Alain Desrosières’s contributions

2. Introduction to the work of Alain Desrosières: the history and sociology of quantification
Michel Armatte

3. Alain Desrosières’s reflexive numbers
Luc Boltanski

4. Alain Desrosières’s spectacles: one lens realist, the other constructivist
Emmanuel Didier

5. From statistics to international quantification: a dialogue with Alain Desrosières
Roser Cussó

6. Learning from the history of the probabilistic revolution: the French school of Alain Desrosières
Fabrice Bardet

Part II. The Statistical Argument in the Neoliberal Era

7. Quantifying the effects of public action on the unemployed: disputes between experts and the rethinking of labour market policies in France (1980-2000)
Etienne Penissat

8. Counting the homeless in Europe: ‘compare before harmonising’
Cécile Brousse

9. The statistical backbone of the new European economic governance: the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure Scoreboard
Gilles Raveaud

10. Evaluating public policies or measuring the performance of public services?
Florence Jany-Catrice

Part III. Uses of Quantification : Power and Resistance

11. Private accounting, statistics and national accounting in France: a unique relationship (1920-1960s)
Béatrice Touchelay

12. Figures for what purposes? The issues at stake in the struggles to define and control the uses of statistics
Marion Gilles

13. The uses of quantification: power and resistance. The example of unemployment statistics
Pierre Concialdi

14. Statistical argument: construction, uses and controversies. Prices and purchasing power
Alain Gély, Bernard Sujobert, Béatrice Touchelay

15. The quantification of the social sciences: an historical comparison
Alain Desrosières

Avainsanat: Philosophy, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Statistics for Social Science, Behavorial Science, Education, Public Policy, and Law, Methodology of the Social Sciences