Data Ethics & Society Reading Group 31-05-22, 12:00-13:00 GMT
Meeting info
Description
You’re welcome to join us for the second of the 2022 Data Ethics & Society Reading Group sessions, on Tuesday the 31st May 2022 at 12:00-13:00.
We will be discussing Deborah Stone’s Counting: How We Use Numbers to Decide What Matters
. Stone explains how counting determines almost every facet of our lives-from how we are evaluated at work to how our political opinions are polled to whether we get into higher education or even out of prison. But numbers, Stone insists, need not rule our lives.
Please consider either buying the book from a local, independent bookseller, or picking up a used copy online.
Thank you to Harriet for suggesting this events content.
Discussion points
- One of the books main focuses is how we count things. Which do you think is better, to continue to count things (like CPI) the way we have for a while, for consistency, or to change how we count things (like Boots Vimes Index)?
- Another point is how our experiences influence our ability to measure things. Western societies may categorise and count things differently, such as gender violence, to other countries. How do we count things like this on a global scale with so many different societies and cultures?
- You can only count what you can see. Can we ever know for sure that what we count is reliable? E.g. In developing countries, more people grow food for personal consumption instead for export, this affects counts like GDP; therefore is using GDP as a development indicator misleading?