Statistics are key elements of contemporary life. They figure prominently in the media, in political discourse, and in daily conversations. They also weigh heavily within the economic and political spheres of modern societies. Yet, the study of statistics in the public sphere has been neglected by social scientists in favor of a focus on their production and history. This article remedies this lacuna by focusing on the public life of statistics. Through a case study of a financial indicator—country risk—that exhibited (...) a rich public life in Argentina in 2001, it argues that statistics are not simply transparent fragments of information, but rich symbols and collective representations able to condense multiple meanings and generate deep emotional reactions. Using in-depth interviews, newspaper covers, headlines, and leads, cartoons and archival materials, this article shows that country risk became a powerful collective representation and introduces a new concept, the fact-totem, to make visible the cultural life of statistics. A fact-totem is a statistic with high media presence that captures the imagination of diverse publics and becomes articulated with basic identity narratives of a collectivity. This article begins to elaborate dramatic dimensions of statistics in public. (shrink)

La nueva sociología económica ha concebido tradicionalmente el Mercado como un espacio sin cultura ni sociedad. No obstante los esfuerzos dirigidos a recuperar la dimensión cultural y no-instrumental del mercado, la profesión ha reconocido raramente que el reencantamiento cultural del mercado frecuentemente toma formas religiosas. La tradición neo-Durkheimiana en la teoría sociológica contemporánea puede contribuir a dar cuenta de dicho fenómeno con importantes consecuencias heurísticas sobre el desarrollo de la sociología económica.