Introducing our groundbreaking special issue, “Number Politics After Datafication,” where we venture into the heart of the anthropology of number politics in the era of data dominance. As numbers wield unprecedented influence over our societies, this collection explores their intricate role in shaping narratives, policies, and individual experiences. Esteemed scholars contribute diverse perspectives, bridging theoretical frameworks with practical implications, drawing inspiration from cultural anthropology's foundational works. Join us on a journey through the nuances of quantification, cultural variations in numerical interpretations, and the ethical considerations of big data, as we unveil a comprehensive exploration of the evolving dynamics between numbers, culture, and power in our increasingly data-driven world.

— ChatGPT, 13 December 2023 (Prompt: ‘Write a one-paragraph editorial introducing an anthropological special issue on number politics after datafication’)

Reassuringly (or otherwise), the above paragraph reads more like the contents of a junk mailbox than an accurate depiction of our first special issue of 2024. Even so, there are uncanny glimpses of plausibility – ‘in the era of’; ‘wield unprecedented influence’; ‘intricate role in shaping narratives, policies, and individual experiences’; ‘the evolving dynamics between’. These rest less on their content than on their lexical, performative familiarity: they look and sound like the sort of thing you would find in academic journals. Put differently, these phrases seem plausible not because of what they say, but because of how they are strung together, evaluated and recognised.

This special issue is characterised precisely by that focus on the ‘how's, and not just the ‘what's, of number politics in ‘our increasingly data-driven world’. More than examining the work that numbers do to sustain modernist, rationalist projects, the contributors explore the enmeshment of those numbers with everyday ethics, practices and infrastructures, as well as the affective and imaginative fields to which these give rise. Covering a range of ethnographic contexts – data-driven welfare systems in the United Kingdom, human–data entanglements in Brazil's 2022 national census, social credit infrastructures in China, the quantification of COVID-19-related ‘avoidable deaths’ in Brazil and biodiversity conservation's new information frontiers – the articles trace ‘how contemporary data politics emerges from the everyday – and often invisible – ethical and affective operations whereby data is produced and put to circulate’. In so doing, they prise open the space of ‘the political’, inviting us to consider not only how data becomes political, but also how data itself ‘engages and summons’ diverse political fields. Perhaps there are lessons for all of us – ChatGPT included – in there, as we race to figure (out) the brave new worlds conjured by artificial intelligence.

Number Politics after Datafication is guest-edited by Moisés Kopper and Hannah Knox, and features articles by Jennifer Cearns and Hannah Knox, Moisés Kopper and Ulisses Corrêa Duarte, Qiuyu Jiang and Rachel Douglas-Jones, Alexandre de Paiva Rio Camargo and Eugênia Motta, and Tracey Heatherington, with an Afterword by Stefania Milan.

In this issue, we also launch the second of our two new review sections that will feature in future issues alongside our mainstay of book reviews and review essays. In the last issue, we launched Re-Reviewed. Now, we introduce Widening the Frame, a section which questions what constitutes a reviewable body of work of anthropological thought and practice. As a discipline, we continue to reappraise what it means to forge new sites for public anthropology and consider the roles that industry, creativity and collectivity might play in these outward-facing forums. During this time of renewal and beyond, this section will provide a space to reflect on the discursive, visual, sonic and multimodal forms that help collapse the boundaries between academy and society, as well the interfaces through which scholars make their research discernible to one another. We invite reviews of singular works, such as films, immersive narratives or multimodal projects; organised events in which topical works are exhibited, such as film festivals, photography, art, and museum exhibitions; and forums for debate, such as academic conferences, public workshops and podcasts. The rest is for our future reviewers to determine – political demonstrations, teach-ins, hashtags: the sky is the limit! Our one aim is to consider how the work(s), event(s) or idea(s) up for debate or critique contribute to timely and relevant issues in anthropological theory and practice, and their potential impacts on and beyond the academy.

We are pleased to feature two inaugural reviews in this category: ‘Hospital Echoes’, an installation by Nora Wuttke, is reviewed in illustrated and written form by Laura Haapio-Kirk, and two films, Moreshin Allahyari's She Who Knows the Unknown: Kabous, the Right Witness and the Left Witness (2020) and Nazlı Dinçel's Instructions on How to Make a Film (2019), are reviewed by Nat Nesvaderani. Finally, in our mainstay category of book reviews, we are given a unique insight into the recent history of economic anthropology with Chris Hann's review article of Scott Cook's, Stephen Gudeman's and Keith Hart's autobiographies.

We hope you enjoy this issue.

Liana Chua, Natalia Buitron and Timothy Cooper