The CSI is pleased to announce the publication of the book
Les publics de la mise en nombre
by Antoine Hardy and Laurène Le Cozanet (Eds)
Mettre en nombre le monde a un caractère profondément politique. De la mesure des inégalités aux estimations des gaz à effet de serre en passant par les projections de croissance économique, l’actualité nous rappelle comment les chiffres sont diffusés, mobilisés, contestés.
Cet ouvrage collectif pluridisciplinaire met au jour un aspect crucial, et pourtant peu exploré, de ces opérations : leurs publics. À partir d’une grande diversité de terrains et de matériaux empiriques, les auteur·rices enquêtent sur celles et ceux que la mise en nombre concerne, interpelle, qui s’y associent, qui s’en approprient les résultats, les discutent ou les refusent. Des publics imaginés aux publics effectifs, des publics commanditaires aux publics enrôlés, ce livre donne de nouvelles clefs pour comprendre les usages et les circulations de la mise en nombre.
En dialogue avec la littérature sur la quantification et celle portant sur la datafication – deux phénomènes qu’abordent désormais toutes les disciplines des sciences humaines et sociales – cet ouvrage ouvre un front de recherche qui intéressera les étudiant·es et les chercheur·ses comme toute personne curieuse de mieux comprendre ce qui se joue lorsque nos expériences sociales sont transformées en nombres.
Putting the world into numbers is profoundly political. From the measurement of inequalities to greenhouse gas estimates and economic growth projections, news events remind us how figures are disseminated, mobilized, and contested.
This multidisciplinary collective book sheds light on a crucial yet little-explored aspect of these operations: their audiences. Drawing on a wide range of fields and empirical materials, the authors investigate those concerned with or challenged by the numbering process, as well as those associated with it, and those who appropriate, discuss, or reject its results. From imagined audiences to actual audiences, from commissioning audiences to enlisted audiences, this book provides new insights into the uses and circulations of quantification.
In dialogue with the literature on quantification and datafication — two phenomena now addressed by all disciplines in the humanities and social sciences — this book opens up a promising line of research of interest to students, researchers, and anyone curious to better understand how our social experiences are transformed into numbers.
ISBN: 9782385426941
Éditeur: Presses des Mines
Date de publication: 2025/06
Nombre de pages: 224
Read an excerpt (in French)
Antoine Hardy is a political scientist and a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for the Sociology of Innovation (Mines Paris–PSL). He is a research associate at the Centre Émile-Durkheim. His thesis research focused on mobilizations based on the quantification of greenhouse gas emissions from research laboratories. His research interests center on the relationship between climate change, scientific work, and the authority of science.
Laurène Le Cozanet is a political scientist and part-time assistant professor at the European University Institute in Florence. She is also an associate member of the Centre d’étude des mouvements sociaux at EHESS. Her research focuses on the relationship between knowledge institutions, infrastructures, and modes of government. Her current interests are the political role of universities, as well as the history and regulation of “database crossings” and other digital interconnections.
