Misurare il non misurabile: considerazioni ed esempi

• Main Author: Sonia Stefanizzi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Rosenberg & Sellier 2013-10-01
• Series: Quaderni di Sociologia
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/qds/454

In the social sciences there are many concepts such as people trafficking, the migratory movements of humans, has been a much debated “object” of measurement for different reasons (for example because of the lack of homogeneity in official sources, the growing differentiation and fragmentation of the migratory routes, etc.). In particular, the paper underlines an epistemological perspective, in other words the relationship existing between the conceptual instruments available to the observer and the social phenomenon under examination. Thus the data on a phenomenon such as people trafficking in view of the close relationship which extends the consideration to immigration in general, are, as the author tries to demonstrate, often the result of the administrative practices of various national and international bodies, which, when dealing with particular migratory policies, define and limit the knowable statistical part of the phenomenon.