Development politics is increasingly addressing social issues. Historically, the 'social' has been associated with normative and philosophical aspects. But over the last decades, social technologies have increasingly penetrated the field, emphasizing procedural and cognitive sides of social policy and administration. Drawing on sociological theories of quantification and the constructivist theory of social problems, I investigate 'numerical tools' as a special class of social technologies in global social policy making. I argue that these tools - beyond their technical function of supporting decisions - shape or even constitute the 'social' in the global sphere. I distinguish two main knowledge effects of the use of numerical tools. First, the construction of global social problems as prerequisite for the conduct of social policies, constituting problem spaces in which social politics ought to intervene. Second, the construction of generalized administrative models of social security and their subsequent diffusion over the world as 'best practice'.
