The article investigates the production of decent work indicators within the ILO, to demonstrate that developing measurement infrastructures in global policymaking requires political work. The concept of decent work responds to the perceived marginalization of the ILO in social and labor policy and was supposed to provide a new unifying normative framework for the organization. The article shows that creating decent work indicators encountered challenges due to its highly politicized production process. Proponents of quantification (mostly workers’ representatives) and opponents (mostly employers’ representatives) disagreed about the function of indicators: should they be country-specific or allow for universal assessment of progress from above. In effect, although indicators of decent work have been integrated into the Sustainable Development Goals—mostly as part of goal no. 8, many are still incomplete. As a result, the indicators did not establish a “framework of assessment,” which would have been guided by universal standards of progress allowing the ILO to “govern at a distance,” and could not initiate a paradigmatic policy shift, impeding the infrastructuralization of measurement. Theoretically, the article advances our understanding of policy formulation and design on the transnational level by showing the political foundation of knowledge-based instruments. Empirically, it rests on a Grounded Theory-based analysis of key ILO documents, including Governing Body minutes, conference and expert meeting reports, and official publications, mainly from the period from 1998 to 2015.

中文翻译：

---

制定体面劳动指标：国际劳工组织有争议的数字

本文调查了国际劳工组织内部体面劳动指标的产生，以证明在全球政策制定中发展衡量基础设施需要政治工作。体面劳动的概念回应了国际劳工组织在社会和劳工政策中被认为被边缘化的情况，并应该为该组织提供一个新的统一规范框架。文章表明，由于其高度政治化的生产过程，创建体面劳动指标遇到了挑战。量化的支持者（主要是工人代表）和反对者（主要是雇主代表）对指标的功能存在分歧：它们应该针对特定国家还是允许从上面对进展进行普遍评估。有效，尽管体面工作的指标已被纳入可持续发展目标——主要是作为第 1 号目标的一部分。8、很多还是不完整的。结果，这些指标没有建立一个“评估框架”，该框架本应以普遍的进步标准为指导，使国际劳工组织能够“远程治理”，并且无法启动范式政策转变，阻碍了基础设施的建设。测量。从理论上讲，本文通过展示基于知识的工具的政治基础，增进了我们对跨国层面政策制定和设计的理解。根据经验，它基于对国际劳工组织主要文件的扎根理论分析，包括理事会会议纪要、会议和专家会议报告以及官方出版物，主要是从 1998 年到 2015 年期间。