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https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.44.2019.2.175-201
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Failed Indicatorisation: Defining, Comparing and Quantifying Social Policy in the ILO's International Survey of Social Services of the Interwar Period
Gescheiterte Indikatorisierung: Definition, Vergleich und Quantifizierung von Sozialpolitik durch den International Survey of Social Services der Internationalen Arbeitsorganisation in der Zwischenkriegszeit
[journal article]
Abstract Despite social policy being one of the most quantified policy fields today, there is no singular indicator or set of indicators of social policy quality or performance on the global level that is universally accepted and influential, comparable to GDP in the economy. The article analyses and explain... view more
Despite social policy being one of the most quantified policy fields today, there is no singular indicator or set of indicators of social policy quality or performance on the global level that is universally accepted and influential, comparable to GDP in the economy. The article analyses and explains the unsuccessful indicatorisation in the ILO’s International Survey of Social Services of the interwar years. During this first elaborate study of social policies worldwide by an international organisation, difficult issues of defining, comparing, and quantifying social policy had to be solved for the first time. Theoretically, a sociology of knowledge approach on indicatorisation is utilised that highlights how social policy was questioned and evaluated. This illustrates the demanding work of comparing including a politicized knowledge production, identifying conditions and hindrances of defining and quantifying the 'social'. It is observed that different interests of participants, epistemic cultures, and practices, as well as bureaucratic procedures resulted in the mere inclusion of a provisional indicator of cost and little quantified data in the final Survey. Empirically, the article relies on an in-depth analysis of historical ILO documents.... view less
Keywords
grounded theory; knowledge production; quantification; bureaucracy; social benefits; social assistance; technical literature; indicator research; social policy; social security; international comparison; ILO; peace time; periodical; construction of indicators; work organization
Classification
Basic Research, General Concepts and History of Social Policy
Free Keywords
International Survey of Social Services; sociology of quantification; comparison; knowledge politics; international bureaucracies; International Labour Organization
Document language
English
Publication Year
2019
Page/Pages
p. 175-201
Journal
Historical Social Research, 44 (2019) 2
Issue topic
Governing by Numbers - Key Indicators and the Politics of Expectations
ISSN
0172-6404
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed