Working with data

Stylized facts & the theory-ladenness of observation

Prof. Dr. Claudius Gräbner-Radkowitsch

Department of Pluralist Economics, Europa-Universität Flensburg · ICAE, JKU Linz

30 September 2026

Vantage point

Two problems, pulling against each other

Contested by every paradigm — except for the existence of both halves.

The ecological challenge

Environmental stressors beyond safe limits
Tipping points close
Climate catastrophe a realistic prospect

The social challenge

A highly unequal world
A large share of humanity in poverty
Very low living standards for many more

Social provisioning vs. ecological sustainability — the twin challenge of this course

The same evidence, two opposite conclusions

Two serious, informed positions — on broadly the same numbers.

Growth is necessary

“The reason that such large economic growth is necessary to reduce global poverty is that the world is still very poor. […] those who don’t see the importance of growth are not aware of the extent of global poverty.”

Max Roser, Our World in Data (2021).

Growth is part of the problem

“In sum, it is irrational to hope, against the evidence, that our existing [growth-based] economic system will deliver the development outcomes we want while at the same time reversing ecological breakdown.”

Jason Hickel, Degrowth: A response to Branko Milanovic (2020).

How could we settle this empirically?

Observation is theory-laden

Not just interpretation — the vantage point decides what is in the picture.

The duck-rabbit ambiguous figure

Fliegende Blätter, 1892.

A duck or a rabbit - depending on the perspective
Different paradigms highlight different influencing factors and implications
No call for relativism, but self-reflexive pluralism
Perspectival realism as the underlying philosophy

Common data

GDP per capita by world region, 1820 onwards

Share of the world population below five poverty lines

Long-run global poverty on two different measures

Share in extreme poverty against GDP per capita, by world region

Schooling, child mortality, literacy and doctors against GDP per capita

Material extraction by material group and by world region

Energy use and CO2 emissions per capita against GDP per capita

GDP and consumption-based CO2 per capita, indexed to 1990, for six countries

Emissions easier to decouple than raw materials
No substitutes for many raw materials — phosphorus, for instance
Consumption-based accounting: imported emissions count to the importer¹

HDI and Augmented HDI against GDP per capita

Multi-dimensional indicators: a more comprehensive view

Germany

Doughnut diagram for Germany: social foundation largely met, several ecological ceilings overshot

Haiti

Doughnut diagram for Haiti: ecological ceilings respected, social foundation largely unmet

Social foundation — LS life satisfaction · LE healthy life expectancy · NU nutrition · SA sanitation · IN income · EN access to energy · ED education · SS social support · DQ democratic quality · EQ equality · EM employment. Red = shortfall (inner ring) or overshoot (outer ring).

O’Neill et al. (2018); country doughnuts from goodlife.leeds.ac.uk (CC BY).

Number of social thresholds achieved against number of biophysical boundaries transgressed, 91 countries, average 2011–2015. The top-left corner — no boundary transgressed, almost all thresholds met — is empty.

What follows from the empty corner

The Leeds group pushes the question past the scatter: which part of it is a law, and which part is a provisioning system?

What might be possible

Physical needs — nutrition, sanitation, electricity, extreme poverty — plausibly met for all within the boundaries

What looks hard

Qualitative goals such as high life satisfaction: 2–6× the sustainable resource use, at current relationships

Where that leaves us

The lever is the provisioning system — sufficiency and equity, not the level of output

O’Neill et al. (2018); Fanning et al. (2022); see also Raworth (2017).

Where that leaves the data

The twin challenge is real — that much the data do establish
What it implies for future strategies: not settled
Your position depends on which data, which interpretation, which mechanisms — and on how those mechanisms change over time

In your poster: as comprehensive and balanced as you can manage

Standpoint theory

Which objectivity?

The classical / positivist ideal

Data seen from “a view from nowhere”
Value-free, objective analysis as the aspiration

Descartes; Nagel, The View from Nowhere (1986).

The feminist and postcolonial critique

Impossible — knowledge is always situated
Value-freedom yields only weak objectivity
Often a disguised “god trick”

Haraway; Harding (2015).

Bias shaped every stage, not just the conclusions

Harding’s summary of what the feminist critique actually found.

[…] sexist and androcentric biases had shaped virtually every stage of [these allegedly objective] research processes.

They had shaped […] what could count as interesting or important scientific and technical problems, […] what counted as relevant concepts and hypotheses […] the design of research processes, what counted as relevant evidence, and the interpretation of data […]

Sandra Harding, Objectivity and Diversity (2015: 30).

Strong objectivity is more objective, not less

Not abandoning objectivity — no longer confusing it with value-freedom.

Objective research should be fair to the evidence, fair to one’s critics, and fair to the most severe criticisms one can imagine […]

Thus, “strong objectivity” is faithful to the central commitments of the standard view in spite of its rejection of the value-free ideal. […] it is “real objectivity” […]

Sandra Harding, Objectivity and Diversity (2015: 33).

Standpoint methodology is a route to strong objectivity

Not “the marginalised are right”. Rather: a deliberate procedure against your own blind spots.

Take in different standpoints, especially those outside the mainstream
Views from the margins: not automatically “more valid”
But: a guard against intellectual lock-ins, and a way to expose blind spots

Different standpoints in your poster, too

Your turn

Your task

Country groups · 35 minutes

From the data sources in this presentation: development, poverty and environmental impact for your country

Then: a short presentation (2–4 minutes) to the other groups

Not just the numbers — two readings of them

What your presentation has to do

Two interpretations of your data, from different paradigmatic viewpoints
Related to the twin challenge: social provisioning against ecological sustainability
Key lessons for your fellow students — including the ones about the data itself

Note every judgement call — which year, which indicator, which source. And the theory that justifies it.

Summary and outlook

Development and environment: a twin challenge, social and ecological
A wide array of indicators — and they disagree
Observation is theory-laden: choice of indicators, and their assessment, follow the vantage point
Vantage points track the general approaches: modernisation, Marxism, dependency, post-development
Goal: the twin challenge approached in a pluralist way — comprehensive and balanced

Never neutral — but explicit and self-reflexive

References

Fanning, A. L., O’Neill, D. W., Hickel, J. and Roux, N. (2022) “The social shortfall and ecological overshoot of nations,” Nature Sustainability 5(1): 26–36.

Harding, S. (2015) Objectivity and Diversity: Another Logic of Scientific Research, Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Hickel, J. (2020) Degrowth: A response to Branko Milanovic, available at https://www.jasonhickel.org/blog/2017/11/19/why-branko-milanovic-is-wrong-about-de-growth (accessed September 2026).

O’Neill, D. W., Fanning, A. L., Lamb, W. F. and Steinberger, J. K. (2018) “A good life for all within planetary boundaries,” Nature Sustainability 1(2): 88–95.

Raworth, K. (2017) Doughnut economics: Seven ways to think like a 21st-century economist, White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing.

Roser, M. (2021) How much economic growth is necessary to reduce global poverty substantially?, available at https://ourworldindata.org/poverty-minimum-growth-needed (accessed September 2026).