Indicators as Knowledge: Human Rights Indicators and Global Governance

作为评估和促进世界各地各种社会正义和改革战略的工具，指标正在迅速增加。有法治、针对妇女的暴力、人类发展等方面的指标。捐助者越来越多地要求将可量化和可衡量的结果作为资助非政府组织的条件。为了解经济发展而发展的统计计量形式现在正转移到诸如遵守人权和打击性贩运等跨国问题上。本项目探讨了指标在全球治理中的这种新用法。指标使用数字度量来进行国家间和时间间的比较。他们使用可比较的类别来描述高度多样化的社会现象，并将其呈现为简单的数字，以便进行排名。他们的目标是产生公众和决策者可以获得的知识。然而，指标所需要的技术专长对公众的理解是不透明的。它们依赖于政府、倡导组织和国际组织的数据收集工作，这些工作对特定地区和问题具有高度的针对性。被贴上标签并被统计的通常是政治斗争的产物。指标被包装成客观和直接的信息，掩盖了国家之间的政治竞争、当地独特的计算方法以及专业知识的影响。该研究项目的目标是开放制定指标的政治和技术进程。该项目将通过三个指标的民族志来研究指标是如何产生和使用的。这些发现可能有助于公众和国际决策者对各种知识指标提供和不提供更谨慎、更细致的理解。

Indicators are rapidly multiplying as tools for assessing and promoting a variety of social justice and reform strategies around the world. There are indicators for the rule of law, violence against women, human development, and much more. Donors increasingly demand quantifiable and measurable results as a condition for funding NGOs. Forms of statistical measurement developed to understand economic development are now being transferred to transnational problems such as compliance with human rights and combating sex trafficking. This project examines this new use of indicators in global governance. Indicators use numerical measures to make comparisons across countries and over time. They use comparable categories to describe highly diverse social phenomena and render them as simple numbers that enable ranking. Their goal is to produce knowledge that is accessible to the public and policy-makers. Yet, indicators require technical expertise that is opaque to public understanding. They depend on data collection efforts by governments, advocacy organizations, and international organizations that are highly specific to particular places and problems. What gets labeled and counted is usually the product of political battles. The information that indicators package as objective and straightforward conceals political competition among countries, local idiosyncratic practices of counting, and the influence of expertise. The goal of the research project is to open up the political and technical processes through which indicators are made. The project will examine how indicators are produced and used though an ethnography of three indicators. The findings may help the public and international decision-makers to develop a more cautious, nuanced understanding of the kinds of knowledge indicators do and do not provide.