Governing by Numbers

How do numbers govern the world? How is the authority of computational techniques shaped? Model-based evidence is an important part of the whole body of evidence upon which pandemic predictions or vaccination strategies are based. Models, when functioning as an evidence-base, turn into instruments of governance. Their authority is likely to make us believe in the numerical representations they produce. They act as senior experts that guide and govern public health.Mansnerus argues that models, along with other measurement and assessment tools form a techne of governance (the technical rationality of governance). Models, in this sense, are recontextualised, and their use in policy-making processes is brought to the centre of the analysis. A case study on the use of modelling techniques to improve animal health illustrates this.