The Social Life of Measures

Conceptualizing Measure-Value Environments

Bibliographic Data

ID2352811
AuthorsA Mubi Brighenti (0000-0002-7498-9857, University of Trento, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume35
Issue1
Pages23-44
Publication date2018-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTheory Culture & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0263-2764 • E-ISSN: 1460-3616
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0263276416689028
OpenAlexW2586069517
LanguageEN
Citations received29
References cited26

Issues of measure and measurement, and their relation to value and values, are of concern in several major threads in contemporary social theory and social research. In this article, the notion of 'measure-value environments' is introduced as a theoretical lens through which the life of measures can be better understood. A number of points are made which represent both a continuation and a slight change in emphasis vis-à-vis the existing scholarship. First, it is argued that the relation between measure and value is necessarily circular - better, entangled. Second, a conceptualization of measures as territorializing devices is advanced. Third, importance is given to the fact that measures are not simply tools in our hands, they are also environments in which we live. Fourth, attention is drawn to the fact that the unit ( n = 1) is not just a quantitative happening among others, but is qualitatively distinct

Conceptualization · Data mining · Epistemology · Measure (data warehouse · Political science · Relation (database · Scholarship · Sociology · Value (mathematics · Computer Science · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Management and Organizational Studies · Philosophy · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Artificial Intelligence