Chinese statistics have given rise to a variety of interpretations, doubts and blind citations. On the one hand, observers of China’s economy, population, history, social conditions and many other variables, are in dire need of numbers describing China’s state quantitatively. But on the other, they lack of trust into the authority of China’s statistical output.
The aim of this course is to familiarize students
with Chinese statistics -- historical and contemporary -- and to introduce
them to a critical approach of quantification. Understanding better the
production and uses of numbers allows to situate quantitative material in
its proper historical, social and political context, without
necessarily testing mathematically the reliability of data.
- Trainer/in: Andrea Breard