Numbers as Fact-Icons
The Public Power of '6402' in Post-War Colombia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2979136 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nicolás Rudas (0000-0002-5557-6838, Yale University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 396-425 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Cultural Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1749-9755 • E-ISSN: 1749-9763 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/17499755241228040 |
| OpenAlex | W4392816576 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 34 |
In 2021, the Peace Court of Colombia revealed that the national army had systematically executed 6402 innocent civilians, falsely presenting them as members of illegal armed groups. This revelation catapulted the number '6402' into a prominent position within the country's public discourse. I reconstruct the first six months of the figure's dissemination, encompassing its coverage in both traditional and social media. In this analysis, I put forth a novel cultural-sociological conceptualization of numbers as 'fact-icons', departing from conventional views that regard statistics as purely technical entities. For wide segments of the Colombian public, '6402' became a continuing political emblem not only because it reflected the magnitude of a real atrocity, but also due to factors of a more symbolic kind. First, the publication of the figure was constructed as a collective experience of 'epiphany' by journalists and media commentators. Second, it was infused with deep narratives of national identity by social movement activists. Lastly, it became a focal point of effervescent collective action through stylized aesthetic representations within the realm of popular art
Ancient history · Media studies · Political economy · Political science · Post war · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · History · History and Politics in Latin America · Law
Interpretation and Social Knowledge
The Civil Sphere
The Seductions of Quantification
The Strong Program In Cultural SociologyElements of a Structural Hermeneutics (with Philip Smith)
Iconic Consciousness
It Was Like a Fever
Stylized Facts in the Social Sciences
Presidential versus Civil Power
Iconic Consciousness
Narrating the Social
The performance of truth
Accounting, Territorialization and Power
Memetic protest and the dramatic diffusion of Alan Kurdi
Producing the news, producing the crisis
The sociology of news production
Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation
Fact-signs and cultural sociology
The Sociology of Quantification
Dueling incentives
Rules and implements
Numbers as Fact-Icons
Beyond the Fact/Value Distinction
The Culture of Public Problems
What's New with Numbers? Sociological Approaches to the Study of Quantification
Fact-Totems and the Statistical Imagination
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |