Libby Schweber

Disciplining Statistics

Demography and Vital Statistics in France and England, 1830-1885

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

"Libby Schweber addresses both the institutional conditions of scientific change and the actual forms of knowledge produced. And she convincingly rejects the usual teleology of disciplines as what scientific practitioners always want and advanced states always need. She shows how the assertion of a discipline can be a sign of weakness, of inability to shape policy, really a course of action when all else fails."--Theodore M. Porter, author of "Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life"

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Duke University Press
• Seitenzahl: 288
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. November 2006
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 235mm x 162mm x 18mm
• Gewicht: 390g
• ISBN-13: 9780822338147
• ISBN-10: 0822338149
• Artikelnr.: 22235653

Autorenporträt

Libby Schweber is a Reader in the Department of Sociology at the University of Reading.

Inhaltsangabe

Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Part I. The Struggle for Disciplinary Recognition: Why “Invent” a
Discipline in Nineteenth-Century France
1. The “Invention” of Demography, 1853–1855 35
2. The Neglect of Demography, 1855–1867 49
3. The Reinvention of Demography, 1867–1878 67
Part II. The Institutionalization of Vital Statistics in England: How to
“Secure” a Discipline in Nineteenth-Century England
4. The Invention of Vital Statistics, 1830–1837 93
5. Vital Statistics as an Instrument of Social Reform 105
Part III. The Institutionalization of Demography in France: How to “Secure”
a Discipline in Nineteenth-Century France
6. Discipline Formation at Last 135
7. Limits to Institutionalization 157
Part IV. The Struggle to Retain Disciplinary Recognition: How to “Defend” a
Discipline in Nineteenth-Century England
8. The Challenge to Vital Statistics 179
9. Institutional Transformations and the Introduction of Disciplinary
Specialization 191
Conclusion 213
Notes 227
Bibliography 253
Index 273