Assignment Week 10 - Question & Comment

Assignment Week 10 - Question & Comment

Question 1

This term has two distinct meanings, both of which are relevant to sociology. The original meaning of the term refers to facts about society. This is what government statisticians produce, as they measure the ways in which societies change by monitoring births, deaths, marriages, employment, the balance of trade, and so on. To this end, social data are collected, for instance through the registration of births and deaths, and through the census. Having accurate and up-to-date information about a society is seen as essential to efficient government, so that policies are targeted to those areas where the need is most acute, and problems are spotted at an early stage. Statistics are also seen as having an important democratic function that permits the success or failure of a government to be evaluated against the facts - for instance, have literacy rates improved and hospital waiting lists reduced(Healey, 2011)?

However, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) is far from being an uncontroversial government department. Social scientists have often been critical of the ways in which statistics have failed to provide a true reflection of society. For instance, unemployment statistics are regularly attacked from both the left and the right. Right-wing critics claim that the government over-estimates the number of people who are unemployed, as many of those claiming benefit on the grounds of unemployment could find work if they wanted to, or actually work informally or illegally. Left-wing critics have argued that the figures are under-estimates of the true level of unemployment, because many individuals who would work if they could find jobs (such as married women and early retirees) are excluded from the numbers. And feminists have often argued that statistics highlight the more male aspects of life, such as the formal economy, while ignoring the importance of domestic work and childrearing for the well-being of a society.

Many social phenomena are perhaps too complex to be adequately measured by figures. But many claim that governments deliberately manipulate figures to highlight their achievements and hide their failures. Sociologists have often been at the forefront of these debates, and have often used their influence, for instance through the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), to hold governments to account(Mosadenghard, 2011).

Over time a second meaning of the term statistics has emerged and many people who have no interest in society at all call themselves statisticians. In this meaning, statistics can be seen as a branch of mathematics that deals with the analysis of data. In the extreme, some pure statisticians are interested only in the development of tools to analyze data and have no interest whatsoever outside of their mathematical properties.

Within sociology, there is a strong historical tradition of using empirical data to understand social change, going back to Émile Durkheim. Now, this type of analysis is seen as an integral part of sociology and the ability to analyze numerical data is seen as an important sociological skill.

There are a number of functions that ...