Harper, Richard H.R.2017-04-152017-04-151997978-94-015-7372-6The paper reports findings from an ethnographic stuy of work practice at the International Monetary Fund in Wahsington, DC. In particular, it describes the mission process, drawing attention to important aspects of social organisation in that process. these aspects, relating to social validation, ritual, and the moral (as against the arithmetica) transformation of numbers, are cruicial to understanding the nature of missions and what role new technologies might play in them.enText