State, Quantification and Agency: A Genealogical Analysis

Abstract

This article investigates the role of quantification practices in the construction of the State and social routines, in the ways of governing the population through numbers, in the modalities of statistical criticism of reality, and in the processes of social change. We seek to contribute with an original synthesis of two interpretative matrices: on the one hand, Anglo-Foucauldian studies on governmentality, which relate the forms of quantification to other technologies of induction of conduct, in liberalism and neoliberalism, “government regimes” that produce and consume freedoms. On the other hand, French pragmatic sociology, in particular the concept of “equivalence conventions” and the idea of a plurality of logics of action, allow us to understand the dual nature of statistics as an “instrument of proof” and as an “instrument of government”, formulated by Alain Desrosières, which prioritizes the science of numbers and its role in the coordination of social life. We propose a critical use of these models, rehearsing a genealogy of levels of agency and social life progressively constructed as measurement domains. This choice makes it possible to explain the singularity of quantification practices in the contemporary world, examined in its four main categories: benchmarking, statistical activism, self-tracking, and the politics of algorithms.