ABSTRACT
By investigating the rise and fall of once taken-for-granted measures of social progress, this chapter examines an instance of these organic crises. Informed by concepts from science and technology studies, it explores reasons why faith, trust, and confidence have been lost in previously ‘God-like’ measures such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and argues that objective statements about the condition of the world are in fact precarious collective achievements, whose authority stems not only from how these measures are produced but also from the social context in which their production, dissemination, and interpretation are embedded. The chapter explains that the loss of faith in GDP to provide an accurate representation of the state of the world is symptomatic of globalized capitalism’s disintegration that benefits some people but not others. It examines what alternative measures of objective social progress are currently being crafted, focusing specifically on the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.
