>From: R. Allan Reese [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 1999 10:00 AM
>You may recall a debate (in RSS News) a few years back about
>the RSS motto - "For others to thresh". The roots of the RSS were most
>definitely in the systematic collection of data for the better governance
>of society. There is, I agree, room for wider debate (CPD for members?)
>on topics such as the "Platonic view of data" and the "myth of
>objectivity"
I missed that discussion in RSS News so am appreciative of the reference.
How many years back?
I've wondered about that sheaf of wheat on the RSS tie and Newsletter!!
Does it really symbolise the collection of statistics????
That is an important difference of emphasis. Radstats people tend to think
in terms of the *production* rather than the collection of statistics. We
would certainly want to know where the wheat had come from, and whether the
wheat was genetically modified!
A defining moment for Radstats was the publication in 1979 of the Radstats
book Demystifying Social Statistics that characterised statistics as 'social
constructions'. I would prefer to think in terms of organisational
construction. What this means is that all statistics relating to human
activities, except perhaps those of births, deaths, and marriages, are the
product of categorisations and coverage that are determined by the producing
organisations. They are facts about organisations as much as about their
purported subjects.
No one can make sense of statistics of homelessness, or waiting lists, for
example, or understand why there are now three sets of government statistic
covering unemployment that are not related to each other, without
appreciation of that statistics in these areas are not collected like stalks
of wheat, but are produced by organisations.
But I don't think that many statisticians understand this concept. I would
be very agreeably surprised if the concept of social construction is
mentioned in the syllabus for the 'Official Statistics' syllabus for the RSS
exams.
(And not many statisticians seem to be seriously interested in such facts
about society. I note that the latest RSS Newsletter reports that 'Once
again there were too few candidates for the paper on Official Statistics to
make comments'.
The main point of this message is say that don't have to be radical to
recognise the importance of the concept of social construction. You don't
even have to be a sociologist! Other social scientists manage to use the
concept as well.
But it does seem that it is more difficult to recognise this if you are a
statistician recognised by the RSS. Radstats has thrived because the RSS has
almost abandoned its root interest in the data that might be used for better
governance.
Ray Thomas, Social Sciences, Open University
Email: [log in to unmask]
Tel: 01908-679081 Fax: 01908-550401
Post: 35 Passmore, Milton Keynes MK6 3DY
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