| 1. |
- Nelhans, Gustaf, 1973-, et al.
(författare)
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Happiness as a Valuation of Nations: From Margin to Indicator
- 2016
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Ingår i: 4S/EASST Conference BCN-2016, Barcelona, August 31-September 3, 2016. - Barcelona : CCIB.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper traces how subjective measures of welfare were transformed from a marginal issue in the social sciences to a valuation of welfare of nations. The co-production of social science and politics is analysed in a case study of negotiations of subjective and objective indicators in Sweden.Since the 1970s social scientists have strived towards finding a replacement for the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as an indicator of welfare in nations. Over the years, various political actors have attempted to make such measurements comply with their ideas of what constitutes a good society. This paper traces the co-production of social scientific knowledge and the political process of attempting to establish a new standardized way of measuring welfare in Sweden.As GDP and other purely economic indicators have dominated how value is ascribed to nations, the various attempts of challenging this form of measurement have taken place at the margins of the social sciences. However, during the past two decades, the negotiations of finding alternative measures of welfare have dramatically moved forward their positions, entering mainstream science and politics.Drawing from a variety of source documents (political proposals, influential reports, mass media accounts and scientific literature), this article connects and analyses multiple modes of veridiction that are the subjects of controversies and negotiations in the construction of a proposed valuemeter of welfare in Sweden. As a result, we show how two major social scientific conceptions of welfare measurements, based either on subjective or objective indicators, relate (without being reduced) to political proposals.
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| 3. |
- Nelhans, Gustaf, 1973
(författare)
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Inscribed and circumscribed by citations – Indicators, impact and quality in the humanities and social sciences
- 2012
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Ingår i: Bibliometrics at the Crossroads Half-day seminar at Chalmers, May 23 2012.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The presentation's focus is the Swedish science policy debates on bibliometrics used for the national funding allocation system for higher education and how it is torn between two qualitatively different systems of research impact measures. At present, the national Swedish bibliometric model recognizes and measure research quality as equivalent of publication and of ”being cited”– how well researchers make themselves cite-able in citation based metrics. However, a public inquiry last year proposed a new model similar to the “Norwegian model” of impact based metrics where high quality is seen as equivalent to the prestige of the publication channels, i.e. the status of the scientific journals and publishers. This model is proposed to be implemented from 2014, barely five years after the introduction of the current model. What are the consequences of such a constant reorganization of funding practices and how does it influence the publishing and research practices of scientists? To discuss this, Swedish humanities research will be used as a case, as it during the last years appears - erroneously it will be argued - to have made a great increase in publication rates in Web of Science. In addition I will discuss the lack of transparency and comparability between the various quantitative models of performance indicators such as the bibliometrics models used at faculty and national levels. All in all, the aim is to provide grounds for discussing how citations as well as other bibliometric variables not just reflect but actually effect the quality of research – how bibliometrics is performative.
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