Democratising Measurement: or Why Thick Concepts Call for Coproduction
European Journal for Philosophy of Science 12 (1):1-23 (2021)
Abstract
Thick concepts, namely those concepts that describe and evaluate simultaneously, present a challenge to science. Since science does not have a monopoly on value judgments, what is responsible research involving such concepts? Using measurement of wellbeing as an example, we first present the options open to researchers wishing to study phenomena denoted by such concepts. We argue that while it is possible to treat these concepts as technical terms, or to make the relevant value judgment in-house, the responsible thing to do, especially in the context of public policy, is to make this value judgment through a legitimate political process that includes all the stakeholders of this research. We then develop a participatory model of measurement based on the ideal of co-production. To show that this model is feasible and realistic, we illustrate it with a case study of co-production of a concept of thriving conducted by the authors in collaboration with a UK anti-poverty charity Turn2us.Author's Profile
Reprint years
2022
DOI
10.1007/s13194-021-00437-7
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Citations of this work
The usefulness of well-being temporalism.Gil Hersch - forthcoming - Journal of Economic Methodology:1-15.
A Reformed Division of Labor for the Science of Well-Being.Roberto Fumagalli - 2022 - Philosophy 97 (4):509-543.
Making Intelligence: Ethics, IQ, and ML Benchmarks.Borhane Blili-Hamelin & Leif Hancox-Li - manuscript
Causal bias in measures of inequality of opportunity.Lennart B. Ackermans - 2022 - Synthese 200 (6):1-31.
References found in this work
Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach.Martha C. Nussbaum - 2000 - Cambridge University Press.
Empiricism, Semantics and Ontology.Rudolf Carnap - 1950 - Revue Internationale de Philosophie 4 (11):20-40.