Statistikens dubbla potential
Frigörelse eller förtryck?
This essay concerns equality statistics as part of a population census. It is a kind ofstatistics that is not in action in Sweden because of data protection law for sensitivedata (Personuppgiftslagen). This kind of an enlarged census is requested frominternational institutions like the UN and the EU as a tool to combat discriminationand to keep track of human rights. In Sweden there is a prohibition against collectingsensitive data regarding for instance sexuality, disability, transgender, ethnicbackground and national minority.The essay examines arguments from minority groups in Sweden, who participated inan enquiry done by the Equality Ombudsman on a government assignment 2011. Theenquiry process was done during 2012 and resulted in the report Statistikens roll iarbetet mot diskriminering (The Role of Statistics in Combating Discrimination).The starting point of the essay is to look at equality statistics with a two foldedpotential: as liberating or oppressive for the counted. It could be a liberating tool as thegender categories, which serves as an example of that in the essay. It could also be atool for oppression and to exemplify the essay use eugenics and the Swedish RaceBiological Institute in the early 1900 th century.The arguments pro and con equality statistics are abstracted and sorted in 7 themes:Equality as principle, Participation, Visibility, Strengthening of characteristics andidentity, Anonymity and Internal and external power hierarchies. Some of the proarguments were about visibility and to be counted, while some of the con argumentsrefereed to historical events like the Holocaust and registration of minorities in orderto limit their being in Sweden.From a science studies point of view the essay discuss different approaches foranalyzing the thematic arguments. One classic approach is the popperian critical viewof historicism; some of the arguments could be labelled historicist, and thereforeinvalid and irrelevant according to Karl Popper. Another approach is post colonial; thearguments comes from groups that are traditionally out defined from science and theirknowledge could be seen as the knowledge from ?the Other?.In the final section the arguments are related to two aspects of legitimacy. There is theaspect of the state legitimacy towards the citizens by trying to correct injustice andinequality. The other concerns recognition of minorities by including them in thepopulation census, and by that strengthens their status as citizens in the national state.Also the essay tries to place equality statistics in a classical context of modernity andin the context of nation building.