ABSTRACT
This chapter contributes to critical humanitarian and philanthropy studies through a consideration of metrics from a politics of knowledge perspective. Metrics have received growing attention in a number of domains—from economic development to global health, from human rights advocacy to emergency medical treatment at increasingly militarized borders. The chapter seeks to illustrate how insights drawn from social studies of measurement and the interdisciplinary field of science and technology studies (STS) can inform emerging scholarship at the intersection of critical humanitarian and philanthropy studies. To do so, it draws on exemplary texts on philanthropy and humanitarian intervention in several domains to argue that metrics not only define, but also sometimes limit, action through their constitutive role in problem definition and resource allocation. The chapter then demonstrates how metrics serve as indices of major shifts in development aid and global health governance.
