This investigation of the overwhelming appeal of quantification in the modern world discusses the development of cultural meanings of objectivity over two centuries. How are we to account for the current prestige and power of quantitative methods? The usual answer is that quantification is seen as desirable in social and economic investigation as a result of its successes in the study of nature. Theodore Porter is not content with this. Why should the kind of success achieved in the study of stars, molecules, or cells be an attractive model for research on human societies? he asks. And, indeed, how should we understand the pervasiveness of quantification in the sciences of nature? In his view, we should look in the reverse direction: comprehending the attractions of quantification in business, government, and social research will teach us something new about its role in psychology, physics, and medicine.
Drawing on a wide range of examples from the laboratory and from the worlds of accounting, insurance, cost-benefit analysis, and civil engineering, Porter shows that it is "exactly wrong" to interpret the drive for quantitative rigor as inherent somehow in the activity of science except where political and social pressures force compromise. Instead, quantification grows from attempts to develop a strategy of impersonality in response to pressures from outside. Objectivity derives its impetus from cultural contexts, quantification becoming most important where elites are weak, where private negotiation is suspect, and where trust is in short supply.
Author(s): Theodore M. Porter
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Year: 1995
Language: English
Pages: 322
Contents......Page 5
Preface......Page 6
Acknowledgments......Page 12
INTRODUCTION Cultures of Objectivity......Page 15
Part I POWER IN NUMBERS......Page 21
MAKING KNOWLEDGE IMPERSONAL......Page 23
QUANTIFICATION AND POSITIVISM......Page 29
STANDARDIZING MEASURES......Page 33
BIOLOGICAL STANDARDIZATION......Page 41
DISCIPLINE AND VALIDITY......Page 45
RULES AND INTERVENTIONS......Page 49
MAKING THINGS......Page 53
INFORMATION......Page 57
QUANTIFICATION AS A SOCIAL TECHNOLOGY......Page 61
BARREN THEORY......Page 63
THE ECONOMICS OF ENGINEERS AND PHYSICISTS......Page 67
THE PRICING OF PUBLIC WORKS......Page 72
WALRAS CONFRONTS THE POLYTECHNICIANS......Page 77
ECONOMICS, PHYSICS, AND MATHEMATICS......Page 83
CHAPTER FOUR The Political Philosophy of Quantification......Page 85
OBJECTIVITY /OBJECTIFICATION......Page 86
TRANSPARENCY/SUPERFICIALITY......Page 90
MAKING FRANCE A STATISTICAL SOCIETY......Page 91
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CULTURE......Page 96
PART II TECHNOLOGIES OF TRUST......Page 99
CHAPTER FIVE Experts against Objectivity:Accountants and Actuaries......Page 101
ACCOUNTING AND THE CULT OF IMPERSONALITY......Page 102
OBJECTIVITY IN ACCOUNTING......Page 106
HIERARCHY AND DEFERENCE:THE BRITISH CIVIL SERVICE......Page 110
GENTLEMANLY ACTUARIES......Page 113
A SELECT COMMITTEE SEEKS EXACT RULES......Page 118
CHAPTER SIX French State Engineers and theAmbiguities of Technocracy......Page 126
THE CONTEXTS OF ECONOMIC QUANTIFICATION......Page 128
THE QUANTITATIVE MENTALITY IN ACTION......Page 130
ASSESSING PUBLIC UTILITY......Page 135
PREDICTING REVENUES AND ESTIMATING BENEFITS......Page 139
ENGINEERS AS ELITES......Page 149
ADMINISTRATIVE CULTURE IN FRANCE......Page 154
TECHNOCRACY......Page 157
CHAPTER SEVEN U.S. Army Engineers and the Rise ofCost-Benefit Analysis......Page 160
THE BEGINNINGS OF ECONOMIC QUANTIFICATIONIN AMERICAN ENGINEERING......Page 161
NUMBERS JUSTIFIED BY AGENCY AUTHORITY......Page 167
CORPS OPPONENTS AND THE PUSH TO STANDARDIZE......Page 173
DISCREPANT ECONOMIC PRACTICESIN FEDERAL AGENCIES......Page 187
THE PUSH FOR UNIFORMITY......Page 194
PART III POLITICAL AND SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITIES......Page 203
CHAPTER EIGHT Objectivity and the Politics of Disciplines......Page 205
BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE......Page 206
INFERENCE RULES......Page 211
BIOLOGICAL ASSAYS AND THERAPEUTIC TRIALS......Page 214
MENTAL TESTING AND EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY......Page 221
CAN OBJECTIVITY REPLACE EXPERTISE?......Page 225
CHAPTER NINE Is Science Made by Communities?......Page 229
NEGOTIATION AND AUTONOMY......Page 232
STRONG AND WEAK COMMUNITIES......Page 237
INDISTINCT BOUNDARIES AND POWERFUL OUTSIDERS......Page 240
Notes......Page 245
Bibliography......Page 281
Index......Page 315
