Social theorising and mathematics in action

The analysis of mathematics in action has the intention of contributing to an overall social theorising. In particular, constructs like "formatting power of mathematics", "technological imagination" and "mathematics as a script" will be developed. These concepts help us to understand the way mathematics operates in society and to identify perspectives and conceptual frameworks for interpreting the interplay between technology and social phenomena. The project tries to clarify to what extent mathematics-based actions play an overall structuring role in today's societies. We want to clarify the extent to which "seeing the world through mathematical lenses" establishes an instrumental rationality, which becomes acted out in management, rationalisation, engineering construction, decision theory, etc.Such an instrumental rationality could institute a "functional" expertise, adjusting itself to what might be considered the economic and political interests and demand of a given social order. In order to counteract any "blindness" in the expertise, we try to elaborate the scope of reflections and to establish a professional ethics as an integrate part of any expertise.