This book is written for the love of numbers. It tells their story, shows how they were invented and used to quantify our world, and explains what quantitative data mean for our lives. It aspires to contribute to overall numeracy through a tour de force presentation of the production, use, and evolution of data.
Understanding our physical world, our economies, and our societies through quantification has been a persistent feature of human evolution. This book starts with a narrative on why and how our ancestors were driven to the invention of number, which is then traced to the eventual arrival at our number system. This is followed by a discussion of how numbers were used for counting, how they enabled the measurement of physical quantities, and how they led to the estimation of man-made and abstract notions in the socio-economic domain. As data don’t fall like manna from the sky, a unique feature of this book is that it explains from a teacher’s perspective how they’re really conceived in our minds, how they’re actually produced from individual observations, and how this defines their meaning and interpretation. It discusses the significance of standards, the use of taxonomies, and clarifies a series of misconceptions regarding the making of data. The book then describes the switch to a new research paradigm and its implications, highlights the arrival of microdata, illustrates analytical uses of data, and closes with a look at the future of data and our own role in it.
Author(s): George Sciadas
Publisher: CRC Press/Chapman & Hall
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 312
City: Boca Raton
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Author
Author’s Log
Welcome
1 We Got Number
Where It All Starts
An Ancestor’s Epiphany
From Number to Counting and Measuring
A Triple Problem
Towards a Complete Number System
Is This the End?
Take-Aways
For the Love of Numbers
Fact-Checking Tips
Notes
2 Measuring, With Instruments
Units and Instruments
Standards
Interrelationships Among Units
Expansion of Measurements and Instruments
Superior Data?
Games of the Mind
Empirical Matters
Shifting Interests
Range, Not Point
Applied Cases
Around the House
In the Backyard
That Matter of Time
Fact-Checking Tips
Notes
3 Humanity’s Numbers
Just Imagine…
Count Me In
The Census
Clouds Ahoy
More Than a Count
The Tribulations of a Decent Synthesis
The Act of Aggregation
Harmonization
Go Forth and Multiply
Rewind to Blurry Shadows
Fast-Forward to a Mirage
Live Long and Prosper
What’s in Store?
Fun and Games
What Happened to ‘The Good Old Days’?
A Proposal
Fact-Checking Tips
Notes
4 The Socio-Economic Realm
The Rate of Unemployment
Give Me a Theory…
Kicking the Can
A Stylized Approach
The Makings of an Expert
Inside Empirical Research
A Metaphor
Mental Creations
Output and GDP
Overlaps and Implications
Fact-Checking Tips
Notes
5 The Art of Drawing Lines
The Opening Act
Know No Boundaries?
A Sense of Taxonomy
Geography
Grid Systems
Making Data
From the People to the Stockroom
Back to the People
Full Circle
Nothing Personal, All Business
A Particular Set of Matrices
Industry Classifications
Additional Cast
Flexible Classifications and Alternative Views
One Data
Fact-Checking Tips
Notes
6 The Old Guard
The Players
The Rise of Governments and National Statistical Offices
Additional Public Sources
The Private and Non-Profit Sectors
The Researcher ‘Community’
International Organizations
Modus Operandi
Surveys
Administrative Data
Transitions
Speed and Higher Expectations
Digitization
Acquisition, Curation, and Use of Administrative Data
A Very Big Deal
Fact-Checking Tips
Notes
7 The New Era of Data
On New Sources and Methods
Transactional Data
Log Server and Web Data
Search Engines and Social Media
Earth Observations
Sensory Data
Crowdsourcing
Open Data
Lessons From the Early Go
Keep an Eye On These
Research (Re)Design
The Humpty-Dumpty
More Art Than Science
A Morning Message
Data Flows and Intercepts
The Graduate Course
Fact-Checking Tips
Notes
8 It’s All About the Microdata
Macro Vs. Micro
Off to a Slow Start
The Power to Reveal
Coming of Age
Statistical Registers
Clinical Trials in Economics
Playing at the Margins
Deep and Dynamic
Research Problems and Data Stewardship
Fact-Checking Tips
Notes
9 Data Analysis
A Marvellous Toolbox
Descriptive and Inferential Analysis
Regressions and Correlations
Hypothesis Testing
The Truth, the Fractional Truth, and Nothing But Enough Truth
Probability and Human Nature
Selected Topics
Stock-and-Flow Interpretation
Slippery Impacts
League Tables
Fact-Checking Tips
Notes
10 The Future of Data
A Messy Neighbourhood
Co-habitation and Strange Bedfellows
Data as a Strategic Resource
Playing in the Sandbox
A Trusted Third Party
More Reflections
Revisiting Data Confidentiality and Privacy
The End of Theory
Data By Machines, for Machines
Fact-Checking Tips
Notes
Index
