Author: Tommaso Vitale Date: To: ML movimenti Bicocca Subject: [movimenti.bicocca] Fwd: Call for papers: Incommensurability,
commensuration and public decision
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Laura Centemeri <laucetta@???>
> Date: 24 maggio 2010 20.42.21 GMT+02.00
> To: centemeri@???
> Subject: Call for papers: Incommensurability, commensuration and public decision
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> I send you a call for papers for a session I organize inside the Conference "The Revival of Political Economy. Prospects for sustainable provision" that will be held at the Center for Social Studies (CES) of the University of Coimbra (Portugal) from the 21st to the 23rd of October 2010.
> As you will see reading the call, the session is meant to address the issue of under what circumstances, and under what representation of the (individual and collective) decision process, the need to make different things commensurable
> arise and what devices, both intellectual and practical, are used to make them commensurable. At the same time we want to address the implications of these processes of making things commensurable, in their considering incommensurability as a threat to a rational decision. Is incommensurability just a threat to be avoided or silenced?
> I really would like you to participate with a paper in this session, since I think that your research could greatly contribute to the debate.
> I ask you as well if you could have the call circulate in your networks: the deadline is quite short but there is still time.
>
> Thank you in advance for your help!
> All the best
>
> Laura
>
> Call for papers
> International Conference
> The Revival of Political Economy
> Prospects for sustainable provision
> CES/Coimbra, Portugal, October 21-23, 2010
>
>
> Session: Incommensurability, commensuration and public decision
>
> In contemporary life, many public decisions, across a range of spheres (environmental issues, social policies, economy, health, education, ...), are informed by or taken in terms of processes of quantification and measurement. Cost-benefit analysis, risk-benefit analysis, statistical indicators, the use of a benchmarking approach in the evaluation of a wide array of policies, are just few examples of instruments based on the quantification of phenomena.
> These instruments are increasingly central in the processes of public decision making, since quantification is considered as a mark of objectivity. Moreover, they are considered as a guarantee of the rationality of the public decision.
> These instruments imply the aggregation of different phenomena. The possible incommensurability existing between one object and another is overcome through social processes that fix conventional forms of equivalence. Commensuration is then eminently a social process. Things are not by themselves commensurable; they are made commensurable.
> The sociology of commensuration investigates under what circumstances, and under what representation of the (individual and collective) decision process, the need to make different things commensurable arise and what devices, both intellectual and practical, are used to make them commensurable.
> Our interest in this session is to understand how these projects of commensuration are undertaken and we are especially interested in contributions investigating what is “sacrificed” in these projects, in terms of moral concerns, or alternative forms of valuing things and conceiving what can be considered as a good decision. What is gained, and what is lost through the process of making things commensurable, especially as far as public decision is concerned?
> The questions we would like to address through the contributions and the discussion in the session are: does incommensurability matter in public decision? If yes, why and how? We would like to discuss as well contributions addressing devices that try to deal with public decision processes without putting commensuration as a necessity. Under what circumstances, and under what representation of the public decision process and its rationality, is the taking into account of incommensurability considered as contributing to a good public decision? We are interested in exploring instruments and processes of public decision that consider incommensurability not as a threat to the rationality and validity of social practices but as an opportunity for a better understanding of what is at stake in the decision process.
> Another issue we would like to have discussed in this session concerns how claims for incommensurability are expressed in the public space. The reference to the sacred, the resistance to a trade-off logic, are just few examples of arguments through which the claim for incommensurability is made visible in the public space.
> Theoretical contributions are welcome as well as case-studies addressing the topics of the session.
>
> Abstracts, limited to a maximum of 250 words, with title and the author(s) contacts, should be sent by May 30th to the following e-mail address: centemeri@???
>
> For the accepted contribution, the deadline for sending the full paper is the 30th of September 2010.
>
> For further information about the conference: http://www.ces.uc.pt/eventos/politicaleconomy2010/pages/en/program.php >
>
>
>
>
> --
> Laura Centemeri
> Senior Researcher
>
> Centre for Social Studies (CES)
> Associate Laboratory
> School of Economics
> University of Coimbra
>
> Colégio de S. Jerónimo
> Apartado 3087
> 3001-401 Coimbra
> PORTUGAL
>
> Phone: +351 239855590
> Fax: +351 239855589
> E-mail: centemeri@???
>
> http://www.ces.uc.pt/investigadores/index.php?action=bio&id_investigador=151&id_lingua=1 >
>
