Dissertation Research: The Emergence of National Statistics in Canada and Israel-Palestine

论文研究：加拿大和以色列-巴勒斯坦国家统计的出现

• 批准号: 0526595
• 负责人: Richard Biernacki
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: University of California-San Diego
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-07-15 至 2007-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0526595&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Emergence; National; Statistics

Abstract:This Science and Technology Studies Dissertation Improvement Grant will fund research on connections between the emergence of national statistics and the processes of nation-state formation in Canada and Israel-Palestine in the early 20th century. Most work on the topic has located statistics as a tool of the state and shown how this tool is used to enhance the rationalization of the nation-state and to invent society. This study shows this is happening, but also demonstrates the reverse: how statistics constitutes itself through the state. Paradoxically, the study shows how state creation of a bureau of statistics contributed to development of a statistical scientific community that tried to dissociate itself from politics. The goal of the proposed research is to describe the emergence of official statistics as intertwined with the consolidation of the nation-state, and with the construction of official statistics as an objective body of knowledge. Since statistical practices not only reflect political processes, the project seeks to understand how different statistical styles and strategies helped shape power relations in both societies. The project will compare how state building in Canada in the early 20th century, and in Israel, before and after establishment of the state in 1948, have shaped national statistics and how they were applied. The comparison is based on the fact that both countries are post-colonial societies that were once part of the British Empire, and both have a history of conflict between major ethnic and national groups. Their status as erstwhile British colonies has resulted in resemblances in institutional characteristics and how scientific practices were employed. This study will focus on the Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Canada, and in Israel, the Central Bureau of Statistics. Intellectual MeritsTreating these bureaus as objects of inquiry can contribute to the Science and Technology Studies literature in several ways. STS has reconceptualized universality as the result of successfully extending local socio-technical constructions rather than as discovery of a priori conditions. Analysis of a central bureau of national statistics is a study of a local institution that extends its knowledge, political, economic and demographic, and its epistemological infrastructure, beyond national boundaries. By applying STS tools to examine the intersection between science and the state, this project will illustrate that the relationship is not merely one of dependence on the government, but also a source of state legitimacy and a basis of public action. Since the Canadian census became a model for Israel, the study show that the flow of knowledge and methods was not mainly between metropolis and colony but also around the periphery, as different states and territories tried to come to terms with similar problems of knowledge and administration. Broader ImpactsThe broader impact of this study is in its ambition to comprehend the political impact of different epistemological tools, mainly statistical, in shaping state policies towards minorities. Assuming that the Canadian model of dealing with ethnic conflicts was more successful than the Israeli, that would mark the differences between the two countries in developing national statistics and could help explain why the Canadian model of dealing with ethnic conflicts differs from the Israeli one. This project will illustrate that statistical knowledge and practices have the power to institutionalize and deepen ethnic conflicts, as has happened in the Israeli, or to moderate them, as perhaps in the Canadian case.

摘要：这项科学与技术研究论文改进补助金将资助研究国家统计数据的出现与20世纪初加拿大和以色列-巴勒斯坦民族国家形成过程之间的联系。关于这一主题的大多数工作都将统计视为国家的一种工具，并表明如何利用这一工具来加强民族国家的合理化和创造社会。这项研究表明，这种情况正在发生，但也表明了相反的情况：统计数据是如何通过国家构成的。具有讽刺意味的是，这项研究表明，国家统计局的成立如何促进了一个试图脱离政治的统计科学界的发展。拟议研究的目标是将官方统计的出现描述为与民族国家的巩固以及官方统计作为客观知识体系的构建交织在一起。由于统计做法不仅反映政治进程，该项目试图了解不同的统计风格和战略如何帮助塑造两个社会的权力关系。该项目将比较加拿大在世纪早期的国家建设，以及以色列在1948年建国前后的国家建设，如何塑造国家统计数据及其应用。这种比较是基于这样一个事实，即这两个国家都是后殖民社会，曾经是大英帝国的一部分，而且都有主要种族和民族之间冲突的历史。他们作为前英国殖民地的地位导致了机构特征和科学实践的不一致。这项研究将侧重于加拿大的自治领统计局和以色列的中央统计局。 将这些局作为调查对象可以在几个方面为科学和技术研究文献做出贡献。 STS已经将普遍性重新概念化，作为成功地扩展当地社会技术结构的结果，而不是作为先验条件的发现。对中央国家统计局的分析是对一个地方机构的研究，该机构将其政治、经济和人口知识及其认识论基础设施扩展到国界之外。通过运用STS工具来考察科学与国家之间的交叉，本项目将说明这种关系不仅仅是对政府的依赖，而且是国家合法性的来源和公共行动的基础。 由于加拿大人口普查成为以色列的一个模式，研究表明，知识和方法的流动主要不是在大都会和殖民地之间，而是在周边地区，因为不同的州和地区试图解决类似的知识和管理问题。更广泛的影响本研究的更广泛的影响是在它的野心，以理解不同的认识论工具，主要是统计，在塑造国家对少数群体的政策的政治影响。假设加拿大处理种族冲突的模式比以色列更成功，这将标志着两国在编制国家统计数据方面的差异，并有助于解释为什么加拿大处理种族冲突的模式不同于以色列。该项目将说明统计知识和实践有能力使种族冲突制度化和加深，正如以色列所发生的那样，或者缓和种族冲突，也许就像加拿大的情况一样。