NEW BOOK Data in Society: Challenging statistics in an age of globalisation (August 2019)

Data in Society: Challenging statistics in an age of globalisation … editors Jeff Evans, Sally Ruane, and Humphrey Southall; Policy Press, 2019.

It is 20 years since the publication of the last Radical Statistics collection, Statistics in Society (1999), and even longer since Demystifying Social Statistics (1979). This third collection of chapters produced under the auspices of Radical Statistics will be published by Policy Press in August 2019.

The use of both ‘statistics’ and ‘data’ in the title is to capture the tension between two views of the materials, the methods and the professional and disciplinary basis of our work: the statistical data, statistical analysis,and the statistics and allied professions / disciplines, on the one hand; and ‘data’ (sometimes ‘big’), data analytics, and data scientists, on the other. The aims of the book include:

to explore ongoing developments in the uses of data and the role of statistics in today’s society, including the increasing diversity of data producers beyond the state, notably private corporations, especially those based on social media and new technologies;

to raise levels of critical understanding in terms of the role and significance of statistical data and statistical claims, and to invite a wider public of non-specialist readers, including third sector, professional and service user groups;

to consider how statistics are used in social discourse and debate, to advance interests and to achieve particular, often political, ends.

The audience for the book will include: teachers, researchers and students in applied statistics, and in research methods for a range of social science, health and business areas; those training or practising in areas such as social work, youth and community work, teaching and nursing;  community activists and others using statistics as a campaigning tool and wanting to critically understand their use by others; and, of course, members and allies of the Radical Statistics Group.

Most higher education and training courses for the groups above include an introduction to the use of statistics. The introduction of Q Step programmes to enhance the level of teaching of quantitative methods to social science undergraduates in UK Universities has led to an increased emphasis on quantitative material across the whole range of social sciences and related fields, in undergraduate and taught post-graduate programmes. A number of the chapters here include clear signposts to the date used in their analyses.

Throughout its gestation, the book has benefited from the support of Radical Statistics and its members. Early planning meetings and travel to face-to-face Editors’ meetings were supported by the Radical Statistics Troika. Throughout, appeals to members, allies, and the mailing list have elicited valuable help, including reviewing of chapters. We thank everyone who has supported the book’s development, and look forward to your participation in the arguments that we hope will be stimulated by the book.

The contents of the book are as follows.

Foreword Danny Dorling, and Preface the Editors

Introduction Humphrey Southall, Jeff Evans and Sally Ruane

Part 1: How Data are Changing Introduction: Humphrey Southall and Jeff Evans

Statistical work: the changing occupational landscape Kevin McConway

Administrative data: The creation of Big Data Harvey Goldstein and Ruth Gilbert

What’s new about Data Analytics? Ifan Shepherd and Gary Hearne

Social media data Adrian Tear and Humphrey Southall

Part 2: Counting in a Globalised World Introduction: Sally Ruane and Jeff Evans

Adult Skills Surveys and Transnational Organisations: Globalising Educational Policy Jeff Evans

Interpreting survey data: Towards valid estimates of poverty in the South Roy Carr-Hill

Counting the Population in Need of International Protection Globally Brad Blitz, Alessio D’Angelo and Eleonore Kofman

Tax justice and the challenges of measuring illicit financial flows Richard Murphy

Part 3: Statistics and the Changing Role of the State Section Introduction: Sally Ruane and Humphrey Southall

The control and ‘fitness for purpose’ of UK Official Statistics David Rhind

The statistics of devolution David Byrne

The uneven impact of welfare reform Tina Beatty and Steve Fothergill

‘From ‘Welfare’ to ‘Workfare’ – and Back Again? Social Insecurity and the Changing Role of the State’ Christopher Deeming and Ron Johnston

Access to data and NHS privatisation: reducing public accountability Sally Ruane

Part 4: Economic Life Section Introduction: Humphrey Southall and Jeff Evans

The ‘distribution question’: Measuring and evaluating trends in inequality  Stewart Lansley 

Changes in working life Paul Bivand 

The Financial System Rebecca Boden 

The difficulty of building comprehensive tax avoidance data Prem Sikka

Tax and spend decisions: did austerity improve financial numeracy and literacy?  David Walker

Part 5: Inequalities in Health and Well-being Introduction: Sally Ruane and Humphrey Southall 

Health divides Anonymous

Measuring social well-being Roy Carr-Hill

Re-engineering health policy research to measure equity impacts Tim Doran and Richard Cookson

The Generation Game: Ending the phoney information war between young and old Jay Ginn and Neil Duncan-Jordan

Part 6 : Advancing social progress through critical statistical literacy Introduction Jeff Evans, Sally Ruane, and Humphrey Southall

The Radical Statistics Group: Using Statistics for Progressive Social Change  Jeff Evans and Ludi Simpson

Lyme disease politics and evidence-based policy-making in the UK Kate Bloor

Counting the uncounted: contestations over casualisation data in Australian universities Nour Dados, James Goodman and Keiko Yasukawa

The Quantitative Crisis in UK Sociology Malcolm Williams, Luke Sloan and Charlotte Brookfield

Critical Statistical Literacy and Interactive Data Visualisations Jim Ridgway, James Nicholson, Sinclair Sutherland and Spencer Hedger

Full fact: What a difference a dataset makes? Amy Sippitt 

Data journalism and/as data activism Jonathan Gray and Liliana Bounegru

Epilogue Jeff Evans, Humphrey Southall and Sally Ruane