Table Of Contenti
Data Practices
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Data Practices
Making Up a European People
Evelyn Ruppert
Stephan Scheel (eds)
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Copyright © 2021 Goldsmiths Press
First published in 2021 by Goldsmiths Press
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Printed and bound by Versa Press
Distribution by the MIT Press
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Copyright © 2021 Evelyn Ruppert and Stephan Scheel for selection and
editorial material. Chapter copyright belongs to individual contributors.
The rights of Evelyn Ruppert and Stephan Scheel to be identified as the
General Editors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Individual
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Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Biographies xi
1 Introduction: The Politics of Making Up
a European People 1
Evelyn Ruppert and Stephan Scheel
2 Data Practices 29
Evelyn Ruppert and Stephan Scheel
3 Usual Residents: Defining and Deriving 49
Francisca Grommé, Evelyn Ruppert, and
Funda Ustek- Spilda
4 Refugees and Homeless People:
Coordinating and Narrating 89
Evelyn Ruppert and Funda Ustek- Spilda
5 Migrants: Omitting and Recalibrating 125
Stephan Scheel and Funda Ustek- Spilda
6 Foreigners: Inferring and Assigning 165
Francisca Grommé and Stephan Scheel
7 Data Subjects: Calibrating and Sieving 205
Baki Cakici and Evelyn Ruppert
8 Statistician Subjects: Differentiating
and Defending 237
Francisca Grommé, Baki Cakici, and Ville Takala
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vi Contents
9 Conclusion: The Politics of Data Practices 269
Evelyn Ruppert and Stephan Scheel
Notes 305
Glossary 333
Index 341
vii
Acknowledgements
Data Practices: Making Up a European People is one out-
come of a project, Peopling Europe: How data make a people
(ARITHMUS). It was a five-y ear (2014–2 0) ERC- funded project
led by one of the co- editors and co- authors, Evelyn Ruppert
(PI); the second co- editor and co-a uthor, Stephan Scheel, was
a postdoctoral researcher along with three other co-a uthors,
Baki Cakici, Francisca Grommé, and Funda Ustek- Spilda, and
a doctoral researcher and co- author, Ville Takala. The project
was funded by the European Research Council under the
European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme ((FP/
2007–2013)/ERC Consolidator Grant Agreement no. 615588,
Goldsmiths, University of London). In addition to support-
ing the research that led to this book, funding from that grant
also enabled the book to be published open access. Of note
is that the book is the product of collaborative ethnographic
fieldwork, analysis, and writing and can be considered as both
a research monograph and an edited collection. Rather than
consisting of a series of different positions on data practices, it
is a single intervention about the role of data practices in the
making up of the population and people of Europe. That said,
because individual chapters have been co-w ritten by different
authors and in some cases build upon already published arti-
cles, we have maintained the format of an edited collection.
We are grateful for the generosity of time and support of
numerous national and international statisticians who sup-
ported the project in many ways such as providing access to
meetings and interviews at their institutions and participat-
ing on an ARITHMUS Advisory Group: Barteld Braaksma and
viii
viii Acknowledgements
Eric Schulte Nordholt (Statistics Netherlands); Jane Naylor
(UK Office for National Statistics); Şebnem Beşe Canpolat
and Muharrem Gürleyen Gök (Turkish Statistical Institute);
Tuulikki Sillajõe and Kaja Sõstra (Statistics Estonia); Pasi Piela
(Statistics Finland); Michail Skaliotis, Albrecht Wirthmann,
and David Thoroughgood (Eurostat); and Paolo Valente and
Fiona Willis- Núñez (United Nations Economic Commission
for Europe). We would also like to thank the countless statis-
ticians, policymakers, methodologists, and data scientists who
participated in interviews and accepted our presence at their
innovation labs, offices, working group and task force meet-
ings, and conferences. Without their support the ethnographic
research on which this book is based would not have been pos-
sible. While they and other statisticians may question or disa-
gree with our analyses and interpretations, we hope that the
book contributes a fresh perspective on longstanding debates
on the political stakes of data practices in the making of official
population statistics.
We also appreciate the feedback and suggestions of six
anonymous reviewers at both the proposal and draft manu-
script stages. Their reviews and comments were insightful
and contributed to many improvements to the manuscript.
We especially acknowledge the close reading of one reviewer
whose astute suggestions helped us to elaborate and
strengthen the conclusion.
The book was conceived during a May 2018 meeting at
the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) during
Evelyn Ruppert’s tenure as a Fellow and Van Doorn Honorary
Chair at the School of Social and Behavioural Sciences,
Erasmus University Rotterdam. We are thankful for the use of
facilities and space in the NIAS building located in the heart
of the old city centre of Amsterdam and the support of NIAS
staff in making the meeting possible. The meeting served as
