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The making of a population: Challenges, implications, and consequences of the quantification of social difference

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  • Cruz, Taylor M.

Abstract

How do we make a difference? This paper traces the connections made between quantified knowledge, population health, and social justice by examining the efforts of population scientists to assess sexuality as a point of difference within population-based data systems, including on national health and social surveys, electronic medical records, and the Census. Population scientists emphasize the importance of measuring social difference in order to identify and remedy structural disadvantage. This evaluation requires the assessment of difference and the comparison of distinct groups across standardized outcome measures. In quantifying social difference, however, population scientists obscure or minimize several difficulties in creating comparable populations. I explore some of these challenges by highlighting three central tensions: the separation of difference from other aspects and categories of social experience, the reduction of difference through the use of one over several possible measures, and the enactment of difference as quantified knowledge loops back into society. As a theoretical inquiry into the form of social difference as it is conceptualized, operationalized, and materialized across the science-society nexus, this paper identifies the various commitments made during processes of scientific evaluation. By attending to the values and priorities that exist within and through practices of quantification, I aim to address the problem of measuring social difference as it pertains to the issues of social justice and health equity.

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  • Cruz, Taylor M., 2017. "The making of a population: Challenges, implications, and consequences of the quantification of social difference," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 79-85.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:174:y:2017:i:c:p:79-85
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.12.025
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Mayer, K.H. & Bradford, J.B. & Makadon, H.J. & Stall, R. & Goldhammer, H. & Landers, S., 2008. "Sexual and gender minority health: What we know and what needs to be done," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 98(6), pages 989-995.
    2. Robson, Keith, 1992. "Accounting numbers as "inscription": Action at a distance and the development of accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(7), pages 685-708, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Cruz, Taylor M. & Paine, Emily Allen, 2021. "Capturing patients, missing inequities: Data standardization on sexual orientation and gender identity across unequal clinical contexts," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 285(C).
    2. Hale M. Thompson & Clair A. Kronk & Ketzel Feasley & Paul Pachwicewicz & Niranjan S. Karnik, 2021. "Implementation of Gender Identity and Assigned Sex at Birth Data Collection in Electronic Health Records: Where Are We Now?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-12, June.
    3. Cruz, Taylor Marion, 2022. "The social life of biomedical data: Capturing, obscuring, and envisioning care in the digital safety-net," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    4. Paine, Emily Allen, 2021. "“Fat broken arm syndrome”: Negotiating risk, stigma, and weight bias in LGBTQ healthcare," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).

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