"Arbitrariness and the Metrological Paradox: An ethnography of a Table" a talk by Mr. William Stafford Jr. at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 12th August 2013
Time : 3:00 pm
Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)
Place : Seminar Room, First Floor, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi
Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Race Course(Yellow Line)'
Event Description : The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library cordially invites you to a Seminar on ‘Arbitrariness and the Metrological Paradox: An ethnography of a Table’ by Mr. William Stafford Jr.,
University of California, USA.
Abstract : In a report commissioned by the Planning Commission of India to review the methodology for setting the poverty line, known as the Tendulkar Report, the observation is made that the number which corresponds to the poverty line is essentially arbitrary. The point is not that the number is chosen arbitrarily, or a matter of convention. The explanation given is, rather, that where the poverty line is based on a qualitative norm, the translation of this norm into a quantitative measure results in a certain arbitrariness with respect to its referent. In 2007, the poverty line was used by the National Commission on Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) to construct a metric and table through which they were able to demonstrate that, while the number of the 'poor' had decreased since the implementation of the economic reforms begun in 1991, the numbers of the ‘vulnerable’ had increased. No justification was given for the multiples of the poverty line on the basis of which the table is constructed – it is also, in some sense, arbitrary. This demonstration in turn serves as the basis for a framing of the ‘informal’ as a distinct economic and legal order, to be organised and regulated under the sign of security of livelihood. In this paper, the speaker will analyse the table as an instrument for the generation of a rationale for social regulation through the category of labour. He will specifically focus on the table as a technique, and attempt to ground this effort in discussions of metrology and paradoxes of the constitution of measuring instruments, agencements and critiques of a performative approach to economics and issues concerning number and orders of enumeration.
Speaker : Mr. William Stafford Jr. is currently a Ph.D. scholar in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, having done his postgraduate work at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems at JNU and the Department of Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics. His work focuses on informality and the concept of economy.
Related Events : Talks | Economy
Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)
Place : Seminar Room, First Floor, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi
Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Race Course(Yellow Line)'
Event Description : The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library cordially invites you to a Seminar on ‘Arbitrariness and the Metrological Paradox: An ethnography of a Table’ by Mr. William Stafford Jr.,
University of California, USA.
Abstract : In a report commissioned by the Planning Commission of India to review the methodology for setting the poverty line, known as the Tendulkar Report, the observation is made that the number which corresponds to the poverty line is essentially arbitrary. The point is not that the number is chosen arbitrarily, or a matter of convention. The explanation given is, rather, that where the poverty line is based on a qualitative norm, the translation of this norm into a quantitative measure results in a certain arbitrariness with respect to its referent. In 2007, the poverty line was used by the National Commission on Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) to construct a metric and table through which they were able to demonstrate that, while the number of the 'poor' had decreased since the implementation of the economic reforms begun in 1991, the numbers of the ‘vulnerable’ had increased. No justification was given for the multiples of the poverty line on the basis of which the table is constructed – it is also, in some sense, arbitrary. This demonstration in turn serves as the basis for a framing of the ‘informal’ as a distinct economic and legal order, to be organised and regulated under the sign of security of livelihood. In this paper, the speaker will analyse the table as an instrument for the generation of a rationale for social regulation through the category of labour. He will specifically focus on the table as a technique, and attempt to ground this effort in discussions of metrology and paradoxes of the constitution of measuring instruments, agencements and critiques of a performative approach to economics and issues concerning number and orders of enumeration.
Speaker : Mr. William Stafford Jr. is currently a Ph.D. scholar in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, having done his postgraduate work at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems at JNU and the Department of Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics. His work focuses on informality and the concept of economy.
Related Events : Talks | Economy
"Arbitrariness and the Metrological Paradox: An ethnography of a Table" a talk by Mr. William Stafford Jr. at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 12th August 2013
!["Arbitrariness and the Metrological Paradox: An ethnography of a Table" a talk by Mr. William Stafford Jr. at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 12th August 2013]()
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Monday, August 12, 2013
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