In Digressive Society, I introduce the concept of global maximization of individual choice. While such a calculation is inherently subjective, I argue that this does not make the exercise meaningless.
I wanted to test this idea in practice, exploring how machine learning could be used to measure pluralism.
I worked with publicly available data from the 2018 European Social Survey, focusing in particular on the 21-item human values scale developed by Shalom H. Schwartz.
The aim was to gather models, techniques, and use cases for measuring pluralism and diversity, enabling further experimentation and reuse.
Developed in Python using Jupyter Book.
October 2021
