ABSTRACT
Generally considered in epistemic opposition, the space at the nexus of quantification and criticalism offers necessary ontological, epistemological, and axiological possibilities. In this chapter, the author explores his journey toward that nexus of quantification and criticalism.
Guided by the Black Radical Tradition, the author offers a conversation that critiques how race is used in social science research and continues the argument that quantification in the social sciences is a subjective rather than objective exercise. Furthermore, the author theorizes about how repetition is part of the pedagogical practices of quantification. Finally, the author offers two empirical examples at the nexus of quantification and criticalism. The first example is a discussion of how historical quantitative “art” offered a critical quantitative approach to data visualization. The second is a summary of the author's first quantitative empirical article grounded in criticalism. The author concludes with an argument for the necessity of a quantification that is grounded in criticalism and an invitation to participate in the collective process of planning, studying, and struggling at the nexus of quantification and criticalism.
