Indicators as Knowledge: Human Rights Indicators and Global Governance

作为知识的指标：人权指标和全球治理

• 批准号: 0921368
• 负责人: Sally Merry
• 金额: $ 25.51万
• 依托单位: New York University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2014-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0921368&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Indicators; Knowledge; Human; Rights; Global

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.

指标正在迅速增加，成为评估和促进世界各地各种社会正义和改革战略的工具。 有法治、暴力侵害妇女行为、人类发展等方面的指标。捐助者越来越多地要求取得可量化和可衡量的成果，以此作为资助非政府组织的条件。 为了解经济发展而制定的统计计量形式现在正被转移到遵守人权和打击性贩运等跨国问题上。 本项目研究指标在全球治理中的这种新用途。指标使用数字计量，对不同国家和不同时期进行比较。 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，指标需要技术专门知识，而这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针对特定地点和问题的数据收集工作。被贴上标签和计算的东西通常是政治斗争的产物。指标所包含的客观和直接的信息掩盖了国家之间的政治竞争、地方特殊的统计做法和专业知识的影响。 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人种志研究指标的产生和使用。 研究结果可能有助于公众和国际决策者对指标提供和不提供的知识种类有更谨慎、更细致的了解。