“Statistics and Quantification”

Quantified information is one among the many daily productions of IOs. From trade statistics to unemployment rates, these institutions make available to a “world community of users” data on almost every aspect of the social and physical world. How can a researcher approach these statistics? What are the particularities of studying data produced by IOs as compared to the study of other IO productions, or of national statistics? What does this research tell us about the functioning of IOs and, more broadly, about statistical expertise as an instrument of power and influence? The sociology of quantification offers useful methodological guidelines for the researcher who aims at opening the “black box” of the statistical production of IOs.