How to do more with numbers : Elementary stakes, framing, keying, and the three-dimensional character of numerical signs

This paper investigates the various ways in which the use numbers is involved in the ordering of activity in social situations. Drawing on social studies of finance and accounting, elementary stakes within the situated use of numbers are initially considered, listing alongside the utilization of numbers as bearers of information their impact on opportunities of action, the embedding of situations, and the use of numbers as social resources. Subsequently, Erving Goffman’s method of frame analysis is drawn upon to more closely investigate how the utilization of numbers is interactively regulated. The framing of activity differentiates consumptive and reproductive utilizations of numbers, and processes of keying manage transitions between frames of consumption and reproduction. Through framing and keying, numbers acquire a three-dimensional character combining calculative, symptomatic and existential qualities. This is illustrated by a sketch of the kind of social order which unfolds when participants attempt to regulate at a distance activity embedded in networks of circulating numbers. In conclusion, there appear to be general differences between the use of numbers and the use of letters and written narrative which derive from the more immediate bearing of the use of numbers on the ordering of social situations, and particularly its unique power of upkeying.