Gunhild Tøndel

Statistics as a technology of governance: the Norwegian need for numbers & numbers for need

Purpose – This study aims to explore the development in Norway from an awareness of the need for numbers to govern in the 70s to a statistical information system launched in 2006, called IPLOS, to respond to this need. The article seeks to discuss how this system was developed, what the Norwegian authorities attempted to achieve with the development, which goals they desired and how the statistics were intended to contribute to reach them.Design/methodology/approach – This study has a multisite approach inspired by situational analysis, and draws on “governing by numbers” among other theoretical debates. It is based on original data (qualitative interviews) and secondary sources (policy and statistics development documents). The sources represent both top down and bottom up perspectives: authorities, municipalities, expertise involved in the development and disability activists.Findings – The statistics development expresses three challenges in Norwegian health and care service policy: planning and govern...

Numbers, Governance, Health: A Norwegian Case of Statistics and Documentation Production

This paper follows the documents (texts, numbers) of a statistics system called IPLOS. IPLOS is intended to coordinate, control, standardize and stabilize municipal care services in Norway and generate statistical knowledge about the clients. We follow the production of IPLOS numbers, their movements through the interlocking organizations, and how IPLOS is understood, used, and interacts with service delivery. We find that rather than IPLOS numbers stabilizing the organization, the organization de-stabilizes the numbers.