Statactivism

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The French movement of statactivism advocates for the mobilization of statistics in support to social movements and agendas. [1]

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The program of French statactivistts is to ‘fight against’ as well as ‘fight with’ numbers, using a variety of possible strategies: [2] [3]

Statactivism's intellectually belongs to the tradition of sociology of numbers. [2] [5] [6] [7] Following Alain Desrosières [7] and Theodore Porter, [8] statactivists use statistics as a “tool of weakness”, which offer to the weak members of society the opportunity to act against their oppression by making injustice visible. [7]

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References

  1. I. Bruno, E. Didier, and T. Vitale, “Editorial: Statactivism: forms of action between disclosure and affirmation,” Open J. Sociopolitical Stud., vol. 2, no. 7, pp. 198–220, 2014.
  2. 1 2 I. Bruno, E. Didier, and J. Prévieux, Statactivisme. Comment lutter avec des nombres. Paris: Zones, La Découverte, 2014.
  3. I. Bruno, E. Didier, and T. Vitale, “Special Issue. Statistics and Activism,” Particip. Conflict. Open J. Sociopolitical Stud., vol. 7, no. 2, 2014.
  4. 1 2 P. Concialdi, “Le BIP40: alerte sur la pauvreté,” in Statactivisme. Comment lutter avec des nombres, I. Bruno, E. Didier, and J. Prévieux, Eds. Zones, La Découverte, 2014, pp. 199–211.
  5. A. Desrosières, The politics of large numbers : a history of statistical reasoning. Harvard University Press, 1998.
  6. E. Didier, America by the numbers : quantification, democracy, and the birth of national statistics. MIT press, 2020.
  7. 1 2 3 A. Desrosières, “Statistics and social critique,” Open J. Sociopolitical Stud., vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 348–359, 2014.
  8. T. M. Porter, Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life. Princeton University Press, 1995.
  9. Society for the Social Studies of Quantification - SSSQ