Metric Society on the Quantification of the Social - On the Quantification of the Social

In today's world, numbers are in the ascendancy. Societies dominated by star ratings, scores, likes and lists are rapidly emerging, as data are collected on virtually every aspect of our lives. From annual university rankings, ratings agencies and fitness tracking technologies to our credit score and health status, everything and everybody is measured and evaluated.
 
In this important new book, Steffen Mau offers a critical analysis of this increasingly pervasive phenomenon. While the original intention behind the drive to quantify may have been to build trust and transparency, Mau shows how metrics have in fact become a form of social conditioning. The ubiquitous language of ranking and scoring has changed profoundly our perception of value and status. What is more, through quantification, our capacity for competition and comparison has expanded significantly - we can now measure ourselves against others in practically every area. The rise of quantification has created and strengthened social hierarchies, transforming qualitative differences into quantitative inequalities that play a decisive role in shaping the life chances of individuals.
 
This timely analysis of the pernicious impact of quantification will appeal to students and scholars across the social sciences, as well as anyone concerned by the cult of numbers and its impact on our lives and societies today.

List of contents

Introduction 1
 
1 The Measurement of Social Value 10
 
What does quantification mean? 12
 
The calculative practices of the market 15
 
The state as data manager 17
 
Engines of quantification: digitalization and economization 21
 
2 Status Competition and the Power of Numbers 26
 
Dispositives of comparison 28
 
Commensurability and incommensurability 31
 
New horizons of comparison 33
 
Registers of comparison and investive status work 35
 
3 Hierarchization: Rankings and Ratings 40
 
Visibilization and the creation of difference 40
 
On your marks! 43
 
University rankings 47
 
Here today, gone tomorrow: the market power of rating agencies 53
 
4 Classification: Scoring and Screening 60
 
Credit scoring 63
 
Quantified health status 67
 
Mobility value 71
 
'Boost your score' - academic status markers 74
 
Social worth investigations 78
 
5 The Evaluation Cult: Stars and Points 81
 
Satisfaction surveys 82
 
Evaluation portals as selectors 84
 
Peer-to-peer ratings 87
 
Professions in the evaluative spotlight 89
 
Like-based reputations on social media 93
 
6 The Quantified Self: Charts and Graphs 99
 
Health, exercise and mood 101
 
The collective body 104
 
Motivation techniques 106
 
7 The Power of Nomination 111
 
The nomination power of the state 112
 
Performance measurement and the framing of competition 115
 
The nomination power of experts 119
 
Algorithmic authority 123
 
Critique of nomination power 125
 
8 Risks and Side-Effects 129
 
Reactive measurements 129
 
Loss of professional control 133
 
Loss of time and energy 135
 
Monoculture versus diversity 137
 
9 Transparency and Discipline 141
 
Normative and political pressure 144
 
The power of feedback 147
 
Technological surveillance in the workplace 149
 
The new tariff systems 151
 
The interdependence of self- and external surveillance 153
 
The regime of averages, benchmarks and body images 155
 
10 The Inequality Regime of Quantification 158
 
Establishment of worth 160
 
Reputation management 162
 
Collectives of non-equals 166
 
From class conflict to individual competition 168
 
Inescapability and status fluidity 170
 
Self-reinforcing effects 174
 
Bibliography 177
 
Index 196

About the author

Steffen Mau is Professor of Macrosociology at the Humboldt University of Berlin.

Summary

In today's world, numbers are in the ascendancy. Societies dominated by star ratings, scores, likes and lists are rapidly emerging, as data are collected on virtually every aspect of our lives. From annual university rankings, ratings agencies and fitness tracking technologies to our credit score and health status, everything and everybody is measured and evaluated.

In this important new book, Steffen Mau offers a critical analysis of this increasingly pervasive phenomenon. While the original intention behind the drive to quantify may have been to build trust and transparency, Mau shows how metrics have in fact become a form of social conditioning. The ubiquitous language of ranking and scoring has changed profoundly our perception of value and status. What is more, through quantification, our capacity for competition and comparison has expanded significantly - we can now measure ourselves against others in practically every area. The rise of quantification has created and strengthened social hierarchies, transforming qualitative differences into quantitative inequalities that play a decisive role in shaping the life chances of individuals.

This timely analysis of the pernicious impact of quantification will appeal to students and scholars across the social sciences, as well as anyone concerned by the cult of numbers and its impact on our lives and societies today.

Report

'In this brilliant book, Steffen Mau does not simply demonstrate the distortions that occur when excessive reliance is placed on statistical indicators, but shows how the current mania for measurement and quantification eats away at social relationships and even our sense of ourselves.'
Colin Crouch, Emeritus Professor at the University of Warwick
 
'Mau, a leading expert on inequality in Europe, is tackling a question of growing significance: the relationship between quantification, status comparison and social competition. His probing analysis offers a fresh perspective for understanding the brave new world of self-monitoring we live in. It offers convincing explanations for current anxieties of performance that are fed by growing inequality and neoliberalism. Influential in Germany, this excellent book should find a wide readership in the English-reading public.'
Michèle Lamont, past President, American Sociological Association
 
"A timely, informative and appropriately pessimistic book."
Morning Star
 

'A wide-ranging tour through rankings and ratings, stars and points, charts and graphs... the metric society may prove a means for faraway data overlords to capture power and entrench inequality in the guise of efficiency. It risks descending into a 21st-century dystopia that is almost as bleak, in its impersonal way, as those imagined in the darkest novels of the 20th.'
 
The Economist

Product details

• Authors: S Mau, Steffen Mau
• Publisher: Polity Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.01.2019
• EAN: 9781509530410
• ISBN: 978-1-5095-3041-0
• No. of pages: 200
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; Soziologie, Politikwissenschaft, Media Studies, Sociology, Political Science, Medienforschung, Politische Soziologie, Political Sociology, Communication & Media Studies, Kommunikation u. Medienforschung, Political Science Special Topics, Spezialthemen Politikwissenschaft