Few concepts in the history of twentieth-century history proved as important as economic growth. Scholars such as Charles Maier, Robert Collins, and Timothy Mitchell have analysed how the notion that an entity called ‘the economy’ (defined by metrics such as Gross National Product, or GNP) could be made to grow came to define economic thought and policy worldwide. Yet there has been far less attention paid to the fact that neither growth nor GNP went without challenge during their emergence and global diffusion. This article focuses on one set of growth critics: those who advocated for ‘social indicators’ in international development policy during the 1960s and 1970s. It advances three overlapping arguments: that advocates for social indicators harkened back to early twentieth-century transnational efforts to make workers’ ‘standard of living’ the primary statistical framework for policy-makers; that, while supporters of social indicators expressed frustration with technocratic governance, their reform efforts nevertheless represented technocratic critiques of modernity; and finally, that one of the major reform efforts, Morris David Morris’s advocacy on behalf of the ‘Physical Quality of Life Index’ (PQLI), as an alternative measure of national wellbeing, ultimately struggled to challenge the GNP growth paradigm, and yet proved influential in spawning subsequent research into new measures and approaches to development.

中文翻译：

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向哪里增长？1920 年代至 1970 年代的国际发展、社会指标和测量政治

在 20 世纪的历史中，很少有概念能像经济增长那样重要。查尔斯·迈尔、罗伯特·柯林斯和蒂莫西·米切尔等学者分析了一个名为“经济”（由国民生产总值或 GNP 等指标定义）的实体如何能够增长的概念如何定义经济思想和政策全世界。然而，在增长和国民生产总值的出现和全球扩散过程中，无论是增长还是国民生产总值都没有受到挑战，但很少有人关注这一事实。本文重点关注一组增长批评者：那些在 1960 年代和 1970 年代期间在国际发展政策中倡导“社会指标”的人。它提出了三个重叠的论点：社会指标的倡导者可以追溯到 20 世纪初跨国努力使工人的“生活水平”成为政策制定者的主要统计框架；尽管社会指标的支持者对技术官僚治理表示失望，但他们的改革努力仍然代表了对现代性的技术官僚批评；最后，作为一项重大改革努力，莫里斯·大卫·莫里斯（Morris David Morris）代表“生活质量指数”（PQLI）作为衡量国民福祉的替代指标，最终努力挑战 GNP 增长范式，但事实证明在催生新的发展措施和方法的后续研究方面具有影响力。尽管社会指标的支持者对技术官僚治理表示失望，但他们的改革努力仍然代表了对现代性的技术官僚批评；最后，作为一项重大改革努力，莫里斯·大卫·莫里斯（Morris David Morris）代表“生活质量指数”（PQLI）作为衡量国民福祉的替代指标，最终努力挑战 GNP 增长范式，但事实证明在催生新的发展措施和方法的后续研究方面具有影响力。尽管社会指标的支持者对技术官僚治理表示失望，但他们的改革努力仍然代表了对现代性的技术官僚批评；最后，作为一项重大改革努力，莫里斯·大卫·莫里斯（Morris David Morris）代表“生活质量指数”（PQLI）作为衡量国民福祉的替代指标，最终努力挑战 GNP 增长范式，但事实证明在催生新的发展措施和方法的后续研究方面具有影响力。