Funny Numbers

The struggle over cure rate measures in nineteenth-century asylums provides an exemplary instance of how, when used for official assessments of institutions, these numbers become sites of contestation. The evasion of goals and corruption of measures tends to make these numbers “funny” in the sense o...

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Main Author: Theodore M. Porter
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Linköping University Electronic Press 2013-01-01
Series:Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research
Subjects:
Online Access:https://cultureunbound.ep.liu.se/article/view/2022
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author Theodore M. Porter
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author_sort Theodore M. Porter
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description The struggle over cure rate measures in nineteenth-century asylums provides an exemplary instance of how, when used for official assessments of institutions, these numbers become sites of contestation. The evasion of goals and corruption of measures tends to make these numbers “funny” in the sense of becoming dishonest, while the mismatch between boring, technical appearances and cunning backstage manipulations supplies dark humor. The dangers are evident in recent efforts to decentralize the functions of governments and corporations using incen-tives based on quantified targets.
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spelling doaj.art-617135d97ad14846900c3b6acf409d042022-12-22T01:40:25ZengLinköping University Electronic PressCulture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research2000-15252013-01-014410.3384/cu.2000.1525.124585Funny NumbersTheodore M. Porter0University of California, Los Angeles, USAThe struggle over cure rate measures in nineteenth-century asylums provides an exemplary instance of how, when used for official assessments of institutions, these numbers become sites of contestation. The evasion of goals and corruption of measures tends to make these numbers “funny” in the sense of becoming dishonest, while the mismatch between boring, technical appearances and cunning backstage manipulations supplies dark humor. The dangers are evident in recent efforts to decentralize the functions of governments and corporations using incen-tives based on quantified targets.https://cultureunbound.ep.liu.se/article/view/2022Funny numbershistory of mental hospitalshistory of statisticsstandardization of statisticsstatistics of mental illnesstechnicality
spellingShingle Theodore M. Porter
Funny Numbers
Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research
Funny numbers
history of mental hospitals
history of statistics
standardization of statistics
statistics of mental illness
technicality
title Funny Numbers
title_full Funny Numbers
title_fullStr Funny Numbers
title_full_unstemmed Funny Numbers
title_short Funny Numbers
title_sort funny numbers
topic Funny numbers
history of mental hospitals
history of statistics
standardization of statistics
statistics of mental illness
technicality
url https://cultureunbound.ep.liu.se/article/view/2022
work_keys_str_mv AT theodoremporter funnynumbers