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Quantification, State and social participation: heuristic possibilities for an emerging field

Abstract

The article presents the analytical perspectives of the sociology of quantification, highlighting its potential to revisit theoretical debates and empirical issues that cross different fields, with an emphasis on violence and public security, ethnic-racial relations, education and social movements, which are subjects of the articles that compose this dossier. It seeks to map the appearance and still incipient development of the sociology of quantification in the country and demonstrate how its frame of reference can be used to address, under a new angle, some of the central problems of Brazilian society, such as police lethality, racial inequality and the selective and discriminatory school system. Contemporary forms of quantification, their effects on social agency, their points of contact and differences in the promotion of neoliberal rationality are examined, a concern shared by the contributions gathered and reviewed here.

Keywords
quantification; State; neoliberalism; social participation

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