Governance by Indicators Global Power through Classification and Rankings

by Davis, Kevin; Fisher, Angelina; Kingsbury, Benedict; Engle Merry, Sally

• ISBN13: 9780199658244
• ISBN10: 0199658242
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-09-07
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The use of indicators as a technique of global governance is increasing rapidly. Major examples include the World Bank's Doing Business Indicators, the World Bank's Good Governance and Rule of Law indicators, the Millennium Development Goals, and the indicators produced by Transparency International. Human rights indicators are being developed in the UN and regional and advocacy organizations. The burgeoning production and use of indicators has not, however, been accompanied by systematic comparative study of, or reflection on, the implications, possibilities, and pitfalls of this practice. This book furthers the study of these issues by examining the production and history of indicators, as well as relationships between the producers, users, subjects, and audiences of indicators. It also explores the creation, use, and effects of indicators as forms of knowledge and as mechanisms of making and implementing decisions in global governance. Using insights from case studies, empirical work, and theoretical approaches from several disciplines, the book identifies legal, policy, and normative implications of the production and use of indicators as a tool of global governance.

Author Biography

Kevin Davis is Beller Family Professor of Business Law at New York University's School of Law.

Angelina Fisher is Programme Director at NYU's Institute for International Law and Business.

Benedict Kingsbury is Murray and Ida Becker Professor of Law at New York University's School of Law.

Sally Engle Merry is Professor of Anthropology, Law, and Society at New York University.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	p. viii
List of Contributors	p. xii
Indicators as Technologies of Knowledge Production and Global Governance: Key Concepts and Approaches
Introduction: Global Governance by Indicators	p. 3
Beyond Supply and Demand: A Political-Economic Conceptual Model	p. 29
Taming and Framing Indicators: A Legal Reconstruction of the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)	p. 52
The Dynamism of Indicators	p. 86
Semiotics of Indicators: The Case of Corporate Human Rights Responsibility	p. 110
Governmentalizing Sovereignty: Indexes of State Fragility and the Calculability of Political Order	p. 132
Indicators, Power, and Authority in Global Governance
Re-construction of Private Indicators for Public Purposes	p. 165
Legal Yardsticks: International Financial Institutions as Diagnosticians and Designers of the Laws of Nations	p. 180
From Diagnosing Under-immunization to Evaluating Health Care Systems: Immunization Coverage Indicators as a Technology of Global Governance	p. 217
Translation, Transplantation, and Adaptation: The Relationship Between "Global" and "Local" in Indicator Production and Use
Internally Displaced Population in Colombia: A Case Study on the Domestic Aspects of Indicators as Technologies of Global Governance	p. 249
Problems of Power in the Design of Indicators of Safety and Justice in the Global South	p. 281
Case Studies: Assessing the Strengths, Problems, and Effects of Indicators in Human Rights, Humanitarian Assistance, and Social Investment
Measuring Human Rights: UN Indicators in Critical Perspective	p. 297
The Use of Indicators to Measure Government Responses to Human Trafficking	p. 317
Fighting Human Trafficking of Instituting Authoritarian Control? The Political Co-optation of Human Rights Protection in Belarus	p. 344
Rights-based Humanitarian Indicators in Post-earthquake Haiti	p. 365
Impact Investment Indicators: A Critical Assessment	p. 392
Regulating Indicators
Accountability in the Generation of Governance Indicators	p. 437
Public Regulation of Global Indicators	p. 465
Index	p. 475
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