Kiær and the rebirth of the representative method: A case-study in controversy management at the International Statistical Institute (1895–1903) (2022)
Lusinchi, Dominic (Author)
Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences
Volume: 58
Issue: 2
Pages: 163-182
Anders N. Kiær (1838–1919), the director of Norway's Central Bureau of Statistics between 1877 and 1913, was the foremost promoter, at the turn of the 20th century, of the rebirth of what came to be known as the “representative method” or sample survey. His advocacy of a methodology that had been abandoned at the beginning of the 19th century in favor of complete enumeration (the census) provoked a controversy at the International Statistical Institute (ISI) when he first presented it in 1895. Yet, it was “recommended” in fairly short order, by 1903. This was the result of a convergence of factors that prevented the dispute from degenerating into a full-blown conflict and facilitated continuing the discussion while preventing a potential break-up of the association. To understand how this came about, the paper examines (1) the role of the historical background from which the ISI emerged; (2) the epistemic beliefs that informed the ISI members in their daily professional practice; (3) the social structure of the ISI and its “ethos”; (4) the professional standing Kiær enjoyed within the international statistical community. This is a case-study in the sociology of how and why some scientific practices initially seen as “dangerous” gain acceptance and become part of science's lore.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Kaat Louckx;
Raf Vanderstraeten;
(2015)
Household and State-istics: Cornerstones of Society in Population Censuses (Belgium, 1846–1947)
Book
Emmanuel Didier;
(2020)
America by the Numbers: Quantification, Democracy, and the Birth of National Statistics
Chapter
Harris, Richard;
Lewis, Robert;
(2013)
Colonial Anxiety Counted: Plague and Census in Bombay and Calcutta, 1901
Article
Christine von Oertzen;
(2021)
True to form: Media and data technologies of self-inscription
Article
Catherine Gibson;
(2022)
Experiencing Enumeration: Local Reactions and Resistance to Censuses in Imperial Russia, 1863–81
Article
Rowse, Tim;
(2014)
“Rooted in Demographic Reality”: The Contribution of New World Censuses to Indigenous Survival
Article
Christine von Oertzen;
(2023)
Paper Knowledge and Statistical Precision
Article
Christine Von Oertzen;
(2018)
Datafication and Spatial Visualization in Nineteenth-Century Census Statistics
Article
Nobukata Nagasawa;
(2018)
On social and psychological aspects of a negligible reception of Natanson’s article of 1911 in the early history of quantum statistics
Article
Svit Komel;
(2024)
Petty's instruments: the Down Survey, territorial natural history and the birth of statistics
Article
Morelos Rodríguez, Lucero;
Moncada Maya, José Omar;
(2015)
Orígenes y fundación del Instituto Geológico de México
Book
Andersen, Håkon With;
Brenna, Brita;
Njåstad, Magne;
Wale, Astrid;
(2009)
Aemula Lauri: The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters, 1760--2010
Article
Stamhuis, Ida H.;
(2007)
A Nineteenth-Century Statistical Society that Abandoned Statistics
Article
Minvielle, Stéphane;
(2013)
Les ménages de Charleville aux xviiie-xixe siècles
Article
Aparna Nair;
(2024)
Enumerating Infirmity: Disability, Demography, and Empire, 1820–1950
Article
Gulbrandsen, Magnus;
Langfeldt, Liv;
(2004)
In Search of “Mode 2”: The Nature of Knowledge Production in Norway
Book
William H. Tucker;
(2024)
'The Bell Curve' in Perspective: Race, Meritocracy, Inequality and Politics
Article
J McKim Malville;
(2014)
The Eclipse Expeditions of the Lick Observatory and the Dawn of Astrophysics
Book
Jason W. Smith;
(2018)
To Master the Boundless Sea: The U.S. Navy, the Marine Environment, and the Cartography of Empire
Book
Giuseppe Nencioni;
(2018)
Gli Italiani e le esplorazioni artiche
Be the first to comment!