Category Archives: Statistics in Society
Register now – Radical Statistics 2020 Conference
“Learning from the Past to Build a Better Future”
London: Friday 28th February 2020, with associated events on 27th and 28th February evenings, and the morning of 29th February.
The 46th annual Radical Statistics Conference will take place at St Luke’s Community Centre, 90 Central St, London EC1V 8AJ.
2020 marks the bicentenary of the birth of Florence Nightingale who was noted as “The Passionate Statistician”. We are proud to mark this with a Keynote Address from Lynn McDonald of Guelph University, world authority on Nightingale and editor of her collected works. Lynne’s talk is entitled “Florence Nightingale and Statistics: What She Did and What She Did Not”.
There will be many other talks and plenty of time for discussion, including:
Danny Dorling on The UK health crisis
Eileen Magnello on Nightingale: A radical and passionate statistician
Andrew Street on Revisiting Nightingale’s vision and hospital outcomes
Dave Byrne on The IFS Deaton review
Paul Marchant on Bad Stats and the public purse
Greg Dropkin on Radiation & A-bomb survivers in Japan
And discussion and sessions on the new Radical Statistics book ‘Data in Society: Challenging Statistics in an Age of Globalisation’
On the following morning, Saturday the 29th, Radical Statistics’ AGM will be held at the same location. In addition all are invited to discuss the future of Radical Statistics as an organisation as we prepare to enter our second half-century. There will be informal social events on the evenings of the 27th and 28th. We hope to end with a guided walk on a FN theme by a professional guide, immediately following the Saturday meeting.
Radical Statistics 123 (2019)
Cover pages |
Editorial |
Submitted Papers
Lies, damned lies, metrics & semantics: Exploring definitions of the end of leprosy (Hansen’s disease) and their implications | F Houghton, M Winterburn, S Lama & B Cosgrove | |
Teaching for citizen empowerment and engagement | Jim Ridgeway & Rosie Ridgeway | |
Book Reviews | ||
New Book: Data in Society – Challenging Statistics in an age of globalisation – with greatly reduced ‘pre-order’ price for members | Ludi Simpson | |
News | ||
Minutes of AGM at Liverpool | ||
Commission on ‘Future of Radical Statistics’ | ||
Radical Statistics Conference 2020 | ||
Revision of Book Reviewing process | ||
New Book: Data in Society – Challenging Statistics in an age of globalisation – with greatly reduced ‘pre-order’ price for members | ||
Editorial, Issue 121
This issue is now available online.
I/we had hoped – yet again – that this issue would include some of the conference papers but it was not to be. However, my rather hopeless intervention at the beginning of the London Conference, which most –including myself – thought unlikely to be successful has, in fact generated several papers from new authors that not only filled the previous issue but provided a surplus for this issue (although none for the next!).
Contents of this Issue
The result of course is that the contents of this issue are again a mixed bag, so they have been put in the reverse order of author’s surnames (to distinguish from the previous issue). Westart, with a critique of statistics as reification from Simeon Scott, including diatribes on Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics, Bolshevism and Statistics, IBM and the Nazis, Identity Politics, the Neutrality of Numbers, the Mean value as Reification, Big Data, the Data Scientist, Econometrics concluding with the Tyranny of Numbers. It is followed by anovel approach by Daniel and Burns to map real pedestrian catchment areas by factoring in elevation to the street networks to understand daily journey-to-work commuting behaviour, taking Milton in Galasgow as an example. As expected, the ‘real’ ‘ped-shed’ is smaller than the 2D ‘ped-shed’for both current and proposed networks. This research builds on existing established practice in walkability analysis, and prompts a discussion on other factors which may affect walkability and could be included in a more sophisticated walkability index.
After that there are two short articles. Houghton contributes an expose of corruption and mismanagement in Irish Credit Unions, set up to be an ethically ‘cleaner’ than the disgraced banking sector, in their operation of prize draws (Misappropriation of funds; Mismanagement of prize draws funds; Poor systems and controls; Lack of independence where officers of the credit union have been prize-winners). The last article is a final contribution by Roy Carr-Hill on meta analyses, examining the specifically statistical issues. The issue is completed by a comprehensive report on the 2018 Conference in London.
Prospects for RSN 122
We now have no material for the next issue RSN 122, due late January. We would like it to be at least partly devoted to the 2018 conference
papers, and the Editor has written to each of the speakers
asking if they can produce a paper but we think it would also be very
useful if any of those who attended (or did not attend) have any ideas
or thoughts on the subjects raised could make a contribution, however
short. I/we have written to all of the authors individually and circulated
all members asking them to submit anything they want to write
on one or more of the themes addressed in the conference.
The themes addressed at the conference were the issue of inequality
as it relates to income, reproductive health and intimate partner violence,
while the fourth explored the feasibility of low-carbon towns.
The day included workshops specifically related to these themes, and
one on the role of the statistician in the age of alternative facts; and
reports of these workshops are included in the report at the end of this
issue..
Please send anything directly to Roy Carr-Hill roy.carr_hill@yahoo.com
with Subject Title: Contribution on 2018 London RadStats Conference:
theme Income Inequality OR Reproductive Inequalities OR Inequality
and Intimate Partner Violence OR Feasibility of Low-Carbon
towns OR Role of statistician in the age of alternative ‘facts’.
Roy Carr-Hill
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
Issue 119 is online
Check the table of contents for Historical Analysis of the UK population after age 65 by John Read and more.
Web Editor
Cover images for recent journal issues
With thanks to Lawrence Lesser for the poems, and Melanie Schöllhammer, as ever, for the cover designs.
Editorial – Radical Statistics Issue 117 (2017)
Issue 117 is now online, available as open access. Below is the editorial.
This is the first post-2017 Edinburgh Conference Issue. I/we have to
apologise for the tardiness in appearance; been more than a bit
submerged by other tasks. Anyway, I/we think that most of the 60+
participants enjoyed and profited from the Conference.
We have been waiting for the papers from that February Conference
for four months and have only received two; so we have decided to
publish an issue with our backlog of submitted papers, and make the
next issue the 2017 Conference papers.
These are a very mixed bag. The first is a paper, which will be seen as
controversial, by Ian Plewis on Glyphosate and Green Politics reviews
the evidence for and against ‘Round-up’ (and glyphosate more
generally) with a special focus on the confusion of hazard with risk
and the dodgy sampling and statistical methods employed. It is most
certainly worth reading carefully before jumping to any hasty
judgements; if nothing else he shows that (most of) the ‘Green’
evidence is hyped and suspect.
This is followed by a forensic examination of Welsh School Inspection
Reports by Robert Moore showing how ……
Then there is a fascinating two-pager by Larry Lesser – our first but I
hope not only statistical poet – on the ‘recent’ history of the portrayal
of the normal distribution, which is our new cover page.
On the other side of the normality sandwich, we have an article on the
appalling state of Irish breathalyser statistics by Frank Houghton
which ‘links’ – totally fortuitously – with the article by Roy Carr-Hill in
the previous issue.
The last article is by Dougal Hutchison analysing and reviewing the
success – or otherwise – of the Indian government in providing equal
educational opportunities to primary school children, focussing on the
bottom quintile and on Scheduled Tribes. He concludes that whilst
impressive gains have been made, there are still wide disparities
between these two disadvantaged groups and the rest.
Obviously a very eclectic collection and I am not going to make any
attempt to link them, other than that they are all very interesting
papers.
The issue is back to its usual length because there are two additional
pieces. One is a very critical review by Neil Wilson of a book on Basic
Income by Van Parijs and Vanderborght.
The other is the text – finally agreed on among ‘members; of the
Working Group set up at the 2016 RadStats meeting in York – of a
proposal for the issue raised by Palestinians to support Boycott,
Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS) of Israeli University institutions
(not individuals). We’ll know whether they have responded positively
before you get this issue.
Roy Carr-Hill
Radical Statistics Editor
Radical Statistics Issue 116
Radical Statistics Issue 116 is now online!
Read papers by Pip Tyler, Paul Norman, Alan Marshall & Nik Lomax, and Roy Carr-Hill.
2018 Conference programme
On 24 February, 2018 a full line-up of expert speakers will gather at the Radstats conference in London with the theme ‘21st Century Inequality in the UK‘.
As well as speakers there will be workshops and plenty of lively discussion.
Registration is only £50 (£30 student/low income) for the day including lunch.
Please spread the word using this flyer to print and display.
The 2018 Annual General Meeting will immediately follow the conference, and there are social events over the weekend.
Newcomers and continuing members are very welcome to attend!