The Seductions of Quantification: Measuring Human Rights, Gender Violence, and Sex Trafficking (Chicago Series in Law and Society)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.93 (742 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 022626128X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 272 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-11-22 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
We live in a world where seemingly everything can be measured. With The Seductions of Quantification, leading legal anthropologist Sally Engle Merry investigates the techniques by which information is gathered and analyzed in the production of global indicators on human rights, gender violence, and sex trafficking. As Merry shows, indicators are indeed seductive in their promise of providing concrete knowledge about how the world works, but they are implemented most successfully when paired with context-rich qualitative accounts grounded in local knowledge.. And in the process of translating the confusion of social life into neat categories, we inevitably strip it of context and meaning—and risk hiding or distorting as much as we reveal. For instance, the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report, which ranks countries in terms of their compliance with antitrafficking activities, assumes that prosecuting traffickers as criminals is an effective corrective strategy—overlooking cultures where women and children are frequently sold by their ow
"Nothing intrigues me more than the ability to learn from and formulate actions/policies from data about poor countries. However" according to Joshua E. Merry. As a data scientist, I find this book fascinating. Nothing intrigues me more than the ability to learn from and formulate actions/policies from data about poor countries. However, something we sometimes forget, by choice or by accident, is that any analysis done with incorrect data is inherently incorrect. And any conclusions/actions may not have the intended consequences.A great intersection between the world of measurement and analysis.. Five Stars Emily Gallagher Excellent research, thoughtful, important new look at old ideas. the excellence we always get from Sally Merry.
Merry establishes a coherent framework for studying the problem of indicators and applies that framework in a comparative ethnographic study of three important indicator-building projects. This is an excellent book, a persuasive analysis of an important topic that will be new to many readers.”. “The Seductions of Quantification is a perfect example of simple yet powerful skepticism