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Reverse engineering and emotional attachments as mechanisms mediating the effects of quantification
Reverse Engineering und emotionale Bindungen als Mechanismen, die die Effekte der Quantifizierung vermitteln
[journal article]
Abstract Alain Desrosières understood statistics as simultaneous representations of the world and interventions in it. This article examines two mechanisms that mediate how numbers do both. The first, reverse engineering, describes how working backwards from a desired number shapes organizational routines. T... view more
Alain Desrosières understood statistics as simultaneous representations of the world and interventions in it. This article examines two mechanisms that mediate how numbers do both. The first, reverse engineering, describes how working backwards from a desired number shapes organizational routines. The second, emotional attachment, describes the processes by which numbers generate a variety of emotions that sometimes stimulate collective identities. Focusing on educational rankings but including examples of other types of numbers, it argues for the importance of disclosing the effects of specific causal mechanisms in the analysis of particular performance measures.... view less
Keywords
statistical analysis; knowledge transfer; statistical method; quantification; ranking; social environment; causality; emotionality; emotion
Classification
General Sociology, Basic Research, General Concepts and History of Sociology, Sociological Theories
Free Keywords
Desrosières, Alain; reverse engineering
Document language
English
Publication Year
2016
Page/Pages
p. 280-304
Journal
Historical Social Research, 41 (2016) 2
Issue topic
Conventions and quantification - transdisciplinary perspectives on statistics and classifications
DOI
https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.41.2016.2.280-304
ISSN
0172-6404
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed