Radical
Statistics
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The Editor
Radical Statistics
16 February 2001
Dear Colleague
The debate on the aims of Radical Statistics (Ray Thomas, pp 66-73 and Dave Gordon et al, pp 74-75, both in Radical Statistics, 76, Winter '01) raised some critical issues about this movement.
There must be many of us who joined because we believed that it had a wider purpose than the development and celebration of good, socially responsible statistics, as set out in the Radical Statistics policy statement.
The achievement of the goals set out in the Policy Statement should of course remain a major goal of the movement, in other words, how effectively and honestly are statistics used in all kinds of situations in community and public life. But we need to go beyond that if we are not to become simply a radical irritant on the body politic, endlessly pleading for better statistics and better understanding of our analyses. The Policy Statement warns against the use of statistics to protect the status quo. One can argue however that even with its most trenchant analyses of current policies, Radical Statistics is not yet bringing about much real change in those policies.
One can imagine the Sir Humphreys of the Civil Service smiling sardonically as they view the latest statistical attack on some policy, knowing that after a day or two of embarrassing publicity in the media (assuming the media bother to read Radical Statistics), the issue will die down and policy and practice will continue as before.
In attacking the views of Dave Gordon and the many who think like him, Ray Thomas is clearly unhappy about the statement in the preface referred to, fronting two recent Radical Statistics books (Statistics in Society, Dorling and Simpson, 1999, and Tackling Inequalities, Pantazis and Gordon, 2000).
The authors of the preface did not take an extreme view.... "The needs of the community can never be met fully by competition.... The pursuit of profit alone will not eliminate the problems of poverty, inequality.... Only rational, democratic and progressive planning can tackle the manifest injustices of our present society... To paraphrase the old Marxist adage, the purpose of statistics in general and Radical Statistics in particular is not only to describe the world but to change it."
Thomas cites various national plans that failed or were never realised, as though these were examples of the preface's plea for rational, democratic and progressive planning. Where was the democratic involvement in such planning, where were the national soundings and the local discussion forums? Bristol City Council, to its honour, recently undertook a city-wide postal poll to find out whether ratepayers would accept modestly higher rates to pay for improved services. The Council lost this time, but that won't stop us as ratepayers winning the battle to pay for improved services another time.
Our academic journals are replete with statistically-based articles questioning this or that policy, generally followed by recommendations for yet more research into the topic. Even accepting that there can never be absolute finality on any issue, why is there so seldom a clear targeting of reform goals or even a simple statement urging specific policy changes?
Some of the most famous commentators in academe have countless publications to their name, all of them pronouncing on the merits or demerits of this or that policy. But one searches in vain for even a tiny nugget indicating commitment to change.
The proposal put before the 2001 annual general meeting of Radical Statistics crystallises the thoughts of many of us in the movement. We want to help change society, not to celebrate stasis in our comfortable professional slots, pronouncing anathema on bad policies but never doing more than feel virtuous over those pronouncements.
A former Director-General of Unesco once told me that his greatest sorrow in life was that most universities, with their immense capacity of thought and resources, were only interested in what is and what was. They were not concerned about what they could do to change the world, particularly the world experienced by the disadvantaged of the earth.
There is of course a significant and powerful minority of people in the universities who do not fit that picture of inward-lookingness. It is such people who could be attracted by the prospect that Radical Statistics will continue to campaign, even more purposefully, for policy goals that are derived from good statistical analysis.
Walter Barker
Early Childhood Development Centre
Bristol
