WHAT DO YOU HAVE THERE!!

False Numbers as Formalizing Practices

Martha Lampland

Series Editor: Damien Fennell

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The support of The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) is gratefully acknowledged.

The work was part of the programme of the AHRC Contingency and Dissent in Science.

Published by the Contingency And Dissent in Science Project

Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science

The London School of Economics and Political Science

Houghton Street

London WC2A 2AE

Copyright © Martha Lampland 2009

ISSN 1750-7952 (Print)

ISSN 1750-7960 (Online)

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No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any

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False Numbers as Formalizing Practices

By Martha Lampland

Editor’s Note

Lampland’s paper draws our attention to the fact that numbers are used in many ways in science and policy, ways

that need not rely on their meanings being stable and transferable, independent of context. Specifically, she argues

that numbers are used in ways that are ‘false’ yet beneficial for certain social practices. She distinguishes between

provisional numbers, whose usefulness is as a provisional instrument for strategy and planning, and false numbers,

where accuracy may be knowingly sacrificed to serve other goals. Her argument is developed using engaging and

persuasive case studies. The paper is an important contribution to understanding ways numerical claims can be

contingent, dependent on context, and valuable – even if not straightforwardly ‘accurate.’

Abstract

It will be argued that assuming the effective use of numbers depends upon their veracity

obscures crucial social processes at the heart of modernizing practices, such as rationalization

and standardization. Recognizing false and provisional numbers are useful tools forces us to

investigate when and where social practices require these curious implements, i.e. under what

conditions and for what purposes people craft a number for the moment: as a provisional index,

as a temporary sign. Rather than subvert the ostensible purpose of fixed representation, I argue

that provisional and false numbers make stability and fixity in representation possible as a final

result

Introduction

The purpose of numbers varies, as does their meaning. Adept use of numbers depends upon a

clear understanding of what they are doing, and why, in any particular situation. Then what do

the numbers in the following two stories mean?

At a meeting of faculty and administrative staff at a West Coast university held

several years ago, a debate arose about the viability of a number in a long-range

planning document, specifically in relation to the number of parking spaces on

campus. Faculty expressed concern about the number being planned, in light of

university expectations that the student population would grow substantially.

After several rounds of questioning, a senior administrative official finally

blurted out in exasperation, ‘It's just a false number, o.k.?’ This immediately

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silenced the faculty, and the committee proceeded to review the rest of the

planning document.

On April 7th, 1953, the accountant of the Red Star Cooperative Farm in [western

Hungary] challenged her fellow accountants in the county to participate in a

competition in honor of May 1st. She set the terms of the competition, including

having one's books up to date, posting monthly advances distributed to farm

members, and appraising the membership of plan targets and actual items

realized at each quarterly meeting. Officials from a neighboring district

responded by nominating X.Y., whose accounting practices were deemed to

satisfy the terms advertised. Ten features of her accounting practice were

described, covering a range of tasks from recording expenses, earnings, and

members' [pay] advances, providing data to higher agencies, and keeping

cooperative farm leaders and members aware of their financial situation. The

first two characteristics of her award-winning accounting practices warrant

citation: ‘1) She keeps the books up to date with minor inadequacies, and 2) she

prepared the financial plan by the deadline, although not entirely in accord with

reality.’ (Gy-M-S. M. GYL. tanács.vb 31-34-1./953, 1953.május 29.)1

Two stories, two numerical discrepancies: both, I will argue, are “good to think” (Levi-Strauss,

1963).

The point of this exercise is to identify two kinds of numbers which are used in formalizing

practices: false numbers and provisional numbers. These are to be distinguished from ‘regular’

numbers as they are usually understood: referents to stable entities which carry the same

meaning no matter what their context. Provisional and false numbers do not share this stability,

nor are they meaningful outside of specific contexts. I will argue that provisional and false

numbers occur in clearly identifiable situations. Provisional numbers are used in planning and

strategizing, i.e. to assist groups in setting the parameters for tasks at hand and debating their

relative merit. In other instances, provisional numbers parade as stable and fixed indicators,

though their provisional status is well known by those responsible for making them. False

1 Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own. Names in archival documents have been redacted—replaced

by the simple moniker X.Y.—to protect individuals’ privacy. Beyond simple archival etiquette, it is also important

to emphasize that we have no way of verifying the veracity of these accounts.

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numbers appear when the primary task is to learn how to deploy numbers, making the relative

accuracy of the numerical sign less important than the attempt to master the logic of formal

procedures.2

Why make this analytic distinction? I will argue that identifying these peculiar instruments

permits us to track the means by which a range of complex social projects are accomplished. In

particular, the purpose is to divorce the study of everyday formalizing practices from criteria

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