Author Archives: web-editor
Register now – Radical Statistics 2020 Conference
“Learning from the Past to Build a Better Future”
London: Friday 28th February 2020, with associated events on 27th and 28th February evenings, and the morning of 29th February.
The 46th annual Radical Statistics Conference will take place at St Luke’s Community Centre, 90 Central St, London EC1V 8AJ.
2020 marks the bicentenary of the birth of Florence Nightingale who was noted as “The Passionate Statistician”. We are proud to mark this with a Keynote Address from Lynn McDonald of Guelph University, world authority on Nightingale and editor of her collected works. Lynne’s talk is entitled “Florence Nightingale and Statistics: What She Did and What She Did Not”.
There will be many other talks and plenty of time for discussion, including:
Danny Dorling on The UK health crisis
Eileen Magnello on Nightingale: A radical and passionate statistician
Andrew Street on Revisiting Nightingale’s vision and hospital outcomes
Dave Byrne on The IFS Deaton review
Paul Marchant on Bad Stats and the public purse
Greg Dropkin on Radiation & A-bomb survivers in Japan
And discussion and sessions on the new Radical Statistics book ‘Data in Society: Challenging Statistics in an Age of Globalisation’
On the following morning, Saturday the 29th, Radical Statistics’ AGM will be held at the same location. In addition all are invited to discuss the future of Radical Statistics as an organisation as we prepare to enter our second half-century. There will be informal social events on the evenings of the 27th and 28th. We hope to end with a guided walk on a FN theme by a professional guide, immediately following the Saturday meeting.
Radical Statistics 123 (2019)
| Cover pages |
| Editorial |
Submitted Papers
| Lies, damned lies, metrics & semantics: Exploring definitions of the end of leprosy (Hansen’s disease) and their implications | F Houghton, M Winterburn, S Lama & B Cosgrove | |
| Teaching for citizen empowerment and engagement | Jim Ridgeway & Rosie Ridgeway | |
| Book Reviews | ||
| New Book: Data in Society – Challenging Statistics in an age of globalisation – with greatly reduced ‘pre-order’ price for members | Ludi Simpson | |
| News | ||
| Minutes of AGM at Liverpool | ||
| Commission on ‘Future of Radical Statistics’ | ||
| Radical Statistics Conference 2020 | ||
| Revision of Book Reviewing process | ||
| New Book: Data in Society – Challenging Statistics in an age of globalisation – with greatly reduced ‘pre-order’ price for members | ||
Editorial, Issue 121
This issue is now available online.
I/we had hoped – yet again – that this issue would include some of the conference papers but it was not to be. However, my rather hopeless intervention at the beginning of the London Conference, which most –including myself – thought unlikely to be successful has, in fact generated several papers from new authors that not only filled the previous issue but provided a surplus for this issue (although none for the next!).
Contents of this Issue
The result of course is that the contents of this issue are again a mixed bag, so they have been put in the reverse order of author’s surnames (to distinguish from the previous issue). Westart, with a critique of statistics as reification from Simeon Scott, including diatribes on Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics, Bolshevism and Statistics, IBM and the Nazis, Identity Politics, the Neutrality of Numbers, the Mean value as Reification, Big Data, the Data Scientist, Econometrics concluding with the Tyranny of Numbers. It is followed by anovel approach by Daniel and Burns to map real pedestrian catchment areas by factoring in elevation to the street networks to understand daily journey-to-work commuting behaviour, taking Milton in Galasgow as an example. As expected, the ‘real’ ‘ped-shed’ is smaller than the 2D ‘ped-shed’for both current and proposed networks. This research builds on existing established practice in walkability analysis, and prompts a discussion on other factors which may affect walkability and could be included in a more sophisticated walkability index.
After that there are two short articles. Houghton contributes an expose of corruption and mismanagement in Irish Credit Unions, set up to be an ethically ‘cleaner’ than the disgraced banking sector, in their operation of prize draws (Misappropriation of funds; Mismanagement of prize draws funds; Poor systems and controls; Lack of independence where officers of the credit union have been prize-winners). The last article is a final contribution by Roy Carr-Hill on meta analyses, examining the specifically statistical issues. The issue is completed by a comprehensive report on the 2018 Conference in London.
Prospects for RSN 122
We now have no material for the next issue RSN 122, due late January. We would like it to be at least partly devoted to the 2018 conference
papers, and the Editor has written to each of the speakers
asking if they can produce a paper but we think it would also be very
useful if any of those who attended (or did not attend) have any ideas
or thoughts on the subjects raised could make a contribution, however
short. I/we have written to all of the authors individually and circulated
all members asking them to submit anything they want to write
on one or more of the themes addressed in the conference.
The themes addressed at the conference were the issue of inequality
as it relates to income, reproductive health and intimate partner violence,
while the fourth explored the feasibility of low-carbon towns.
The day included workshops specifically related to these themes, and
one on the role of the statistician in the age of alternative facts; and
reports of these workshops are included in the report at the end of this
issue..
Please send anything directly to Roy Carr-Hill roy.carr_hill@yahoo.com
with Subject Title: Contribution on 2018 London RadStats Conference:
theme Income Inequality OR Reproductive Inequalities OR Inequality
and Intimate Partner Violence OR Feasibility of Low-Carbon
towns OR Role of statistician in the age of alternative ‘facts’.
Roy Carr-Hill
NEW BOOK Data in Society: Challenging statistics in an age of globalisation (August 2019)
Data in Society: Challenging statistics in an age of globalisation … editors Jeff Evans, Sally Ruane, and Humphrey Southall; Policy Press, 2019.
It is 20 years since the publication of the last Radical Statistics collection, Statistics in Society (1999), and even longer since Demystifying Social Statistics (1979). This third collection of chapters produced under the auspices of Radical Statistics will be published by Policy Press in August 2019.
The use of both ‘statistics’ and ‘data’ in the title is to capture the tension between two views of the materials, the methods and the professional and disciplinary basis of our work: the statistical data, statistical analysis,and the statistics and allied professions / disciplines, on the one hand; and ‘data’ (sometimes ‘big’), data analytics, and data scientists, on the other. The aims of the book include:
to explore ongoing developments in the uses of data and the role of statistics in today’s society, including the increasing diversity of data producers beyond the state, notably private corporations, especially those based on social media and new technologies;
to raise levels of critical understanding in terms of the role and significance of statistical data and statistical claims, and to invite a wider public of non-specialist readers, including third sector, professional and service user groups;
to consider how statistics are used in social discourse and debate, to advance interests and to achieve particular, often political, ends.
The audience for the book will include: teachers, researchers and students in applied statistics, and in research methods for a range of social science, health and business areas; those training or practising in areas such as social work, youth and community work, teaching and nursing; community activists and others using statistics as a campaigning tool and wanting to critically understand their use by others; and, of course, members and allies of the Radical Statistics Group.
Most higher education and training courses for the groups above include an introduction to the use of statistics. The introduction of Q Step programmes to enhance the level of teaching of quantitative methods to social science undergraduates in UK Universities has led to an increased emphasis on quantitative material across the whole range of social sciences and related fields, in undergraduate and taught post-graduate programmes. A number of the chapters here include clear signposts to the date used in their analyses.
Throughout its gestation, the book has benefited from the support of Radical Statistics and its members. Early planning meetings and travel to face-to-face Editors’ meetings were supported by the Radical Statistics Troika. Throughout, appeals to members, allies, and the mailing list have elicited valuable help, including reviewing of chapters. We thank everyone who has supported the book’s development, and look forward to your participation in the arguments that we hope will be stimulated by the book.
The contents of the book are as follows.
Foreword Danny Dorling, and Preface the Editors
Introduction Humphrey Southall, Jeff Evans and Sally Ruane
Part 1: How Data are Changing Introduction: Humphrey Southall and Jeff Evans
Statistical work: the changing occupational landscape Kevin McConway
Administrative data: The creation of Big Data Harvey Goldstein and Ruth Gilbert
What’s new about Data Analytics? Ifan Shepherd and Gary Hearne
Social media data Adrian Tear and Humphrey Southall
Part 2: Counting in a Globalised World Introduction: Sally Ruane and Jeff Evans
Adult Skills Surveys and Transnational Organisations: Globalising Educational Policy Jeff Evans
Interpreting survey data: Towards valid estimates of poverty in the South Roy Carr-Hill
Counting the Population in Need of International Protection Globally Brad Blitz, Alessio D’Angelo and Eleonore Kofman
Tax justice and the challenges of measuring illicit financial flows Richard Murphy
Part 3: Statistics and the Changing Role of the State Section Introduction: Sally Ruane and Humphrey Southall
The control and ‘fitness for purpose’ of UK Official Statistics David Rhind
The statistics of devolution David Byrne
The uneven impact of welfare reform Tina Beatty and Steve Fothergill
‘From ‘Welfare’ to ‘Workfare’ – and Back Again? Social Insecurity and the Changing Role of the State’ Christopher Deeming and Ron Johnston
Access to data and NHS privatisation: reducing public accountability Sally Ruane
Part 4: Economic Life Section Introduction: Humphrey Southall and Jeff Evans
The ‘distribution question’: Measuring and evaluating trends in inequality Stewart Lansley
Changes in working life Paul Bivand
The Financial System Rebecca Boden
The difficulty of building comprehensive tax avoidance data Prem Sikka
Tax and spend decisions: did austerity improve financial numeracy and literacy? David Walker
Part 5: Inequalities in Health and Well-being Introduction: Sally Ruane and Humphrey Southall
Health divides Anonymous
Measuring social well-being Roy Carr-Hill
Re-engineering health policy research to measure equity impacts Tim Doran and Richard Cookson
The Generation Game: Ending the phoney information war between young and old Jay Ginn and Neil Duncan-Jordan
Part 6 : Advancing social progress through critical statistical literacy Introduction Jeff Evans, Sally Ruane, and Humphrey Southall
The Radical Statistics Group: Using Statistics for Progressive Social Change Jeff Evans and Ludi Simpson
Lyme disease politics and evidence-based policy-making in the UK Kate Bloor
Counting the uncounted: contestations over casualisation data in Australian universities Nour Dados, James Goodman and Keiko Yasukawa
The Quantitative Crisis in UK Sociology Malcolm Williams, Luke Sloan and Charlotte Brookfield
Critical Statistical Literacy and Interactive Data Visualisations Jim Ridgway, James Nicholson, Sinclair Sutherland and Spencer Hedger
Full fact: What a difference a dataset makes? Amy Sippitt
Data journalism and/as data activism Jonathan Gray and Liliana Bounegru
Epilogue Jeff Evans, Humphrey Southall and Sally Ruane
2019 conference announcement
“Inequalities and the life-course – The impact of austerity across generations“
View the programme.
The conference and AGM will take place on Saturday, 23 February 2019 in Liverpool at The Bluecoat.
Registration is now open for the Conference, via Eventbrite.
Issue 120 now online
I/we had hoped that this issue would include some of the conference papers but it was not to be. However, my rather hopeless intervention at the beginning of the London Conference, which most – including myself – thought unlikely to be successful has, in fact generated several papers from new authors so that there is not only this issue but a surplus for the next issue.
Contents of this Issue
The result of course is that the contents of this issue are a mixed bag, so they have been put in the order of author’s surnames. We start, appropriately with a homage to Arthur Bowley, one of the pioneers of statistics and especially a precursor of Tukey’s approach to analysis and presentation. Written and illustrated, lovingly, by John Bibby, who found it buried in a mess of papers somewhere. It is followed by a novel approach by Riekkinen and Burns to understand daily journey-to-work commuting behaviour in London and link this to environmentaland health impact, and to devise a replicable framework through which areas can be rated based on low carbon and active travel with this information then being used to support policy implementation for more sustainable commuting.
The next two articles are clear critiques of the current use of statistics. The first is by Frank Houghton expanding on the revelations concerning the extensive falsification of breathalyser testing statistics by the Irish Police (O’Sullivan, 2017), which have recently escalated into a damning expose of a series of more incriminating practices. What started out as an investigation into inflated activity figures by some Irish Police officers (Garda) has subsequently revealed financial misconduct, wholesale errors and incompetence, and extensive data falsification and a nefarious cover-up at the highest levels. The second is by Brendan Lawson on the coverage of the 2017 South Sudanese Famine by The Guardian and BBC News. There were three interlinked findings: one, the United Nations was the source for the vast majority of statistics; two, these statistics were unilaterally accepted as indisputable truths by the news media; three, they underpinned and constructed a narrative of constitution-measurement-solution. This framed journalists’ use of statistics as serving to reinforce existing power dynamicsof the humanitarian field.
Prospects for RSN 121
Whilst we do have some material forthe next issue RSN 121, due in October 2018, we would like it to be at least partly devoted to that conference. The Editor has written to each of the speakers asking if they can produce a paper but we think it would also be very useful if any of those who attended (or did not attend) have any ideas or thoughts on the subjects raised could make a contribution, however short. I/we have written to all of the authors individually and circulated all members asking them to submit anything they want to write on one or more of the themes addressed in the conference.
The themes addressed at the conference were the issue of inequality as it relates to income, reproductive health and intimate partner violence, while the fourth explored the feasibility of low-carbon towns. The day included workshops specifically related to these themes, and one on the role of the statistician in the age of alternative facts.
Please send anything directly to Roy Carr-Hill roy.carr_hill@yahoo.com with Subject Title: Contribution on 2018 London RadStats Conference: theme Income Inequality OR ReproductiveInequalities OR Inequality and Intimate Partner Violence OR Feasibility of Low-Carbon towns OR Role of statistician in the age of alternative ‘facts’.
Roy Carr-Hill
Issue 119 is online
Check the table of contents for Historical Analysis of the UK population after age 65 by John Read and more.
Web Editor
Cover images for recent journal issues
With thanks to Lawrence Lesser for the poems, and Melanie Schöllhammer, as ever, for the cover designs.
Editorial – Radical Statistics Issue 118 (2017)
Issue 118 is now online, available as open access. Below is the editorial.
This is the second post-2017 Edinburgh Conference Issue. Anyway,
I/we think that most of the 60+ participants enjoyed and profited from
the Conference.
We have been waiting for the papers from that February Conference
for four months and have only received two; so we have decided to
publish an issue with those two and including our backlog of
submitted papers, and make the next issue the 2017 Conference
papers.
The first Conference paper is by Professor Cathcart on the low level of
trust in journalists in the UK, reviewing a wide range of disparate and
fragmentary survey evidence over several years finding no particular
trend; and comparing with levels of trust in journalists in other
European countries. The levels of trust do not appear to respond to
any specific political event; the most likely explanation is that the
public do not trust journalists because they have seen them not telling
the truth.
The second Conference paper is by Michael Dougan reviewing the
‘research’ that was meant to back up the claims of the Leave alliance
in its deceitful campaign about the Brexit referendum. He focuses on
the mysterious ‘statistical’ so-called arguments they put forward; and
shows that there was no basis to any of their evidence.
Then there is another poem by Larry Lesser – this time on a ‘Test for
Normality’ – whilst we have retained his original poem from the last
issue on the cover page. He has also provided a rare political
statistical joke.
We end with the second paper by John Read on the historical analysis
of UK population data focussing on trends in mortality rates. He
carries out a thorough analysis and suggests that the evidence shows
that the population pyramid is stabilising.
Once again, I have to make an appeal for papers – we are down to only
one, apart from outstanding Edinburgh Conference papers – or are we
simply running into a technology trap?
Roy Carr-Hill
Radical Statistics Editor