Knowing nature has always entailed numbers: species counts, rates of distribution and extinction, population sizes and trends, land-cover estimates, carbon emissions or, more recently, biodiversity and biocapital measures. Numbers are crucial constituents of our descriptions and our imaginations of nature and, arguably, of all social life. How are numbers used for making nature visible and valuable and what stories can we tell with and about numbers? How do numbers do different kinds of natures and what role do narratives play? The course addresses these questions by examining specific instances of numbers-in-practice as well as through discussions of more general number-related terms such as “percentage”, “rankings” and “population”. In attending to the performativity of numbers in the context of counting and accounting for different natures, the course explores the co-constitutive dynamics of scientific knowledge, representations and the governance of nature. It will provide a range of analytical categories and methods for ethnographically encountering numbers and introduce students to anthropology of numbers. Readings will include Thomas Crumb, Helen Verran, Theodore Porter, Arjun Appadurai, Jane Guyer and Susan Greenhalgh among others.
Course structure and assessment
After the introductory session we explore four broad subject areas (anthropology of numbers; measures; capital nature; calculative governance) by working through both general texts from anthropology, sociology or history and specific ethnographic case studies. The course is assessed through submission and presentation of comments on the weekly reading, one group presentation and active participation in the seminar.
Findet im Rahmen des normalen Lehrprogrammes am Institut für Europäische Ethnologie statt, ÜWP Studierende können zusätzlich teilnehmen.
Die Veranstaltung findet am Institut für Europäische Ethnologie, Mohrenstraße 41, Raum 311 statt.
