Constructing Non-monetary Social Indicators: An Analysis of the Effects of Interpretive Communities

Based on two contrasting experiences of the construction of non-monetized social indicators carried out at different levels (local and international), this article examines the effects of interpretive communities on indicators, on collective processes, and on social and scientific context–particularly that of information systems. The first initiative we examine is the Social Progress Index (SPI), developed from within the Social Progress Imperative and used at the international, European and local levels. The second initiative is the development of a dashboard of sustainable territorial wellbeing indicators (IBEST) for use across the Grenoble metropolitan area. We present a framework of the effects of interpretive communities. The application of this framework in order to analyze the two initiatives studied reveals the importance of interpretive communities in shaping the scientific and political agenda that is promoted by collective experiences involved in the development of alternative indicators. Rather than specific and circumscribed times for participation, it is the creation of spaces that are not circumscribed in time at the intersection of communities that appear to be most conducive to giving substance to deliberative ecological economics and to ensuring the renewal and transformation of existing interpretive communities. •Compares two experiments aimed at developing alternative indicators.•Uncovers the experiments' interpretative communities.•Develops a new framework to analyze the effects of the interpretative communities.•Refines the work on deliberative ecological economics about alternative indicators.