Indicators as Knowledge: Human Rights Indicators and Global Governance

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、人类发展等指标。捐助者越来越多地要求将可量化和可衡量的成果作为资助非政府组织的条件。为了解经济发展而制定的各种统计计量形式现在正在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。指标使用数字测量来进行跨国家和随时间的比较。他们使用可比较的类别来描述高度多样化的社会现象，并将其呈现为能够进行排名的简单数字。他们的目标是提供公众和政策制定者可以获得的知识。然而，指标需要公众理解不透明的技术专长。它们依赖于政府、倡导组织和国际组织的数据收集工作，这些组织高度特定于特定的地方和问题。被贴上标签和统计的通常是政治斗争的产物。指标包装为客观和直截了当的信息掩盖了国家之间的政治竞争、当地特有的统计做法以及专业知识的影响。该研究项目的目标是开辟制定指标的政治和技术程序。该项目将通过三项指标的民族志研究如何编制和使用指标。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的知识有更谨慎、更细微的理解。

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.