Session 45

Title of session: IPS01. Statistics and Birth of a Nation

Date: 28 April
Time: 10:30-12:00
Room: S4b Lajkonik
StatusNameCountry/affiliationTitle of the contributionBrief summary
OrganizerMr. Jean-Louis BodinFrance
ChairMr. Jean-Louis BodinFrance
SpeakerProf. Em. Jean-Jacques DroesbekeBelgiumStatistics at the service of Belgium in 1830 (co-authors: Michel Armatte, researcher at the Alexandre Koyré Centre, Paris, and Jean-Jacques Droesbecke) Armatte. The essential role of Adolphe QueteletThis paper highlights Adolphe Quetelet's role during the first years after the creation of an independent Belgium born in 1830. Its first part briefly describes the political, social and economic situation of the regions that formed this new nation. Its second part deals with the state of statistics in those regions as well as in the neighboring countries. Its third part shows how Adolphe Quetelet discovered statistics and sensed their importance. Finally, the paper tries to uncover how statistics was a tool that contributed to the consolidation and influence of the new nation.
SpeakerDrs. Bożena ŁazowskaPolandStatistics and Poland's independencePoland, disappeared from European maps since 1795, regained independence on November 11, 1918. After Partitions of Poland in the late eighteenth century, the partitioning powers (Austria, Prussia and Russia), published statistical works but none concerned the former Polish territory. So the Polish Statistical Society, established in 1912 in Cracow, decided to publish in 1915 a yearbook "Statistics of Poland", and in 1916 a “Geographical and Statistical Atlas of Poland". These books were important sources for the Polish delegations during the Paris Peace Conference in 1919-1920 and in Riga in 1921 when establishing the borders of the re-established Polish nation.
SpeakerDrs. Ola AwadPalestineThe Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). Thirty Years of GivingThe PCBS was established in 1993. There was a complete absence of statistics on the Palestinian Territory; it was important to bridge the huge gap in data to meet the needs of planners and policy makers. Accordingly, this paper will discuss the stages PCBS went through starting from the establishment stage to set up the bases and regulations of the Palestinian National Statistical System in different fields, then a modernization and promotion stage with the creation of an Advisory Council for Official Statistics, a third stage focused on networking and partnerships, and finally a stage to deal with Technological Development.
SpeakerDr. Walter RademacherGermanyDreams of Sustainable Europe– How can Public Statistics Contribute?The mutual influence of nation states and statistics also applies to international and especially supranational institutions. It is not surprising that the foundation of what has become the European Union has been accompanied by statistical work and institutions from the beginning in the 1950s when statistics were just a matter of providing the best possible comparable statistics. Statistics are today an integral part of the cumulative body of EU laws. A partnership-based cooperation has emerged in the European Statistical System with standards for the quality of public statistics that are urgently needed for political decisions and public discourse in Europe.
DiscussantMr. Emmanuel DidierFrance
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