Introduction: From social statistics to a sociology of statistics

Public health professionals use social statistics, from basic demographic data to socio-economic characteristics, as part of their everyday practice. As opposed to the use of statistics as instruments in the conduct of research, the sociology of statistics takes statistical concepts and practices as their object of research, interrogating and scrutinizing them. This session takes as its point of departure two recent award-wining books —Sarah Igo's The Averaged American: Survey, Citizens and the Making of Mass Public and Steven Epstein's Inclussion: The Politics of Difference in Medical Research— in order to take a careful look at the historical changes that shaped the way statisticians and other scientists looked, identified, classified, and understood the American population through the 20th century.