Data in Society: Challenging Statistics in an Age of Globalisation 9781447348245

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DATA IN SOCIETY Challenging Statistics in an Age of Globalisation Edited by Jeff Evans, Sally Ruane and Humphrey Southall

First published in Great Britain in 2019 by Policy Press University of Bristol 1-9 Old Park Hill Bristol BS2 8BB UK t: +44 (0)117 954 5940 [email protected] www.policypress.co.uk

North America office: Policy Press c/o The University of Chicago Press 1427 East 60th Street Chicago, IL 60637, USA t: +1 773 702 7700 f: +1 773-702-9756 [email protected] www.press.uchicago.edu

© Policy Press 2019 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested 978-1-4473-4821-4 hardback 978-1-4473-4822-1 paperback 978-1-4473-4824-5 ePdf 978-1-4473-4823-8 ePub The rights of Jeff Evans, Sally Ruane and Humphrey Southall to be identified as editors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved: no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of Policy Press. The statements and opinions contained within this publication are solely those of the editors and contributors and not of the University of Bristol or Policy Press. The University of Bristol and Policy Press disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any material published in this publication. Policy Press works to counter discrimination on grounds of gender, race, disability, age and sexuality. Cover design by Liam Roberts Front cover image: Getty Printed and bound in Great Britain by CMP, Poole Policy Press uses environmentally responsible print partners

Contents List of figures, tables and boxes Notes on contributors Foreword by Danny Dorling Preface

vii ix xv xix

General introduction Humphrey Southall, Jeff Evans and Sally Ruane

1

Part I: How data are changing Introduction 9 Part I editors: Humphrey Southall and Jeff Evans 1

Statistical work: the changing occupational landscape Kevin McConway

13

2

The creation and use of big administrative data Harvey Goldstein and Ruth Gilbert

23

3

Data analytics Ifan Shepherd and Gary Hearne

35

4

Social media data Adrian Tear and Humphrey Southall

47

Part II: Counting in a globalised world Introduction 61 Part II editors: Sally Ruane and Jeff Evans 5

Adult skills surveys and transnational organisations: globalising educational policy Jeff Evans

65

6

Using survey data: towards valid estimates of poverty in the South Roy Carr-Hill

79

7

Counting the population in need of international protection globally Brad K. Blitz, Alessio D’Angelo and Eleonore Kofman

91

8

Tax justice and the challenges of measuring illicit financial flows Richard Murphy

103

iii

Data in Society

Part III: Statistics and the changing role of the state Introduction 115 Part III editors: Sally Ruane and Humphrey Southall 9

The control and ‘fitness for purpose’ of UK official statistics David Rhind

119

10

The statistics of devolution David Byrne

133

11

Welfare reform: national policies with local impacts Christina Beatty and Steve Fothergill

145

12

From ‘welfare’ to ‘workfare’, and back again? Social insecurity and the changing role of the state Christopher Deeming and Ron Johnston

157

13

Access to data and NHS privatisation: reducing public accountability Sally Ruane

171

Part IV: Economic life Introduction 183 Part IV editors: Humphrey Southall, Sally Ruane and Jeff Evans 14

The ‘distribution question’: measuring and evaluating trends in inequality Stewart Lansley

187

15

Labour market statistics Paul Bivand

199

16

The financial system: money makes the world go around Rebecca Boden

213

17

The difficulty of building comprehensive tax avoidance data Prem Sikka

225

18

Tax and spend decisions: did austerity improve financial numeracy and literacy? David Walker

237

iv

Contents

Part V: Inequalities in health and wellbeing Introduction 247 Part V editors: Sally Ruane and Humphrey Southall 19

Health divides Anonymous

251

20

Measuring social wellbeing Roy Carr-Hill

265

21

Re-engineering health policy research to measure equity impacts Tim Doran and Richard Cookson

277

22

The Generation Game: ending the phoney information war between young and old Jay Ginn and Neil Duncan-Jordan

291

Part VI: Advancing social progress through critical statistical literacy Introduction 303 Part VI editors: Jeff Evans, Sally Ruane and Humphrey Southall 23

The Radical Statistics Group: using statistics for progressive social change Jeff Evans and Ludi Simpson

307

24

Lyme disease politics and evidence-based policy making in the UK Kate Bloor

319

25

Counting the uncounted: contestations over casualisation 327 data in Australian universities Nour Dados, James Goodman and Keiko Yasukawa

26

The quantitative crisis in UK sociology Malcolm Williams, Luke Sloan and Charlotte Brookfield

337

27

Critical statistical literacy and interactive data visualisations Jim Ridgway, James Nicholson, Sinclair Sutherland and Spencer Hedger

349

28

Full Fact Amy Sippitt

359

v

Data in Society

29

What a difference a dataset makes? Data journalism and/as data activism Jonathan Gray and Liliana Bounegru

365

Epilogue: progressive ways ahead Jeff Evans, Humphrey Southall and Sally Ruane

375

Index

381

vi

List of figures, tables and boxes Figures 4.1 4.2

5.1

9.1 11.1 12.1 12.2 12.3 14.1 14.2 15.1 15.2

19.1 19.2 19.3 21.1 21.2

Monthly active user counts, in millions, for major online social networks Simple representation of a social graph: six users A–F (‘nodes’) are connected to one another by ‘links’ with nodesize proportional to ‘out-degree’ (number of outbound links) Increased likelihood of reporting positive social and economic outcomes among adults scoring ‘high’ (Level 4/5) in literacy, compared with adults scoring ‘low’ (Level 1 or below): odds ratios Coruscating media headline criticisms of ONS and the National Statistician circa 2004 Estimated loss arising from welfare reform by March 2016, by district Changing British attitudes towards unemployment benefits Proportion of the British public reporting that most unemployed people could find a job if they really wanted Agreement that benefits for unemployed people are too low and cause hardship, Scotland and England, 1983–2016 The share of national income taken by the top 1%, UK Inequality, 1977 to 2015/16: comparing the DWP and ONS trends Flows between employment, unemployment and inactivity, October to December 2017 Distribution of hourly earnings in UK (1) in 1998, before the introduction of the National Minimum Wage, (2) in 2015 and (3) in 2016, after the introduction of the National Living Wage for 25+ workers Infant mortality in England Trends in teenage pregnancy (