numbers - the self, radical transparency and transnational governmentality
DESCRIPTION
Presentation by Marie Laure Djelic (Essec Business School) at the 2013 Colloquium of the PMP review: Number Policies and Politics. Storify : http://storify.com/ESCPeurope/2013-colloquium-of-the-pmp-review-number-policiesTRANSCRIPT
MARIE LAURE DJELIC
ESSEC BUSINESS SCHOOL
Radical Transparency
Transnational Centers
of Calculation
Numbers and the Self
H3
H-
index:22G-index: ??
Medical
NumbersCredit
Score
40+
145FBfriendsX
MARIE LAURE DJELIC
Provision of information on MYSELF• Allowing OTHERS to ACT (doctors, HR managers,
School Deans…)
Categorization and Identity Construction• Allowing OTHERS AND MYSELF to KNOW ME,
recognize me and connect with me
Transparency and self-governance/governmentality• Forcing MYSELF TO ACT on myself
0
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1983 – 2009 – article count for transparency and transparent - The Financial Times, The New York Times, The
Economist (United Kingdom), International Herald Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post) –
Source: Factiva
Exposing the few to the many
Exposing the many to the few
Multiplicity and de-centralization of data and information sources• FROM CONTROL TO SURVEILLANCE
Self-generated and self-managed transparency• FROM ACCOUNTABILITY TO SELF-MONITORING AND
RATING
Transparency with a strong governmentalityconsequence at all levels• FROM SOCIAL ENGINEERING TO SELF-ENGINEERING
Multiple levels of Panopticon(s)• Where the few observe the many. Bentham – ”A
new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind”
…AND performative Synopticon
(Mathiesen 1997)• Where the few infuse the many with particular
norms and codes of being and doing
The Shanghai Ranking:• Positions a University in relation to others
• BUT as Universities turn this measure into a
TARGET, the Shanghai Ranking comes to also
shape and define the norm of WHAT IS A GOOD
University.
• And leads the University to take action to self-
reengineer itself.
The h-index: • A tool allowing me and my evaluators to judge of
my performance
• BUT also an identity defining mechanism to be
maximized and optimized.
• From a tool to an end in itself? When we
strategize, as academics to produce WITH A
VIEW TO MAXIMIZE our h-index?
Increasingly transnational in reach• Moody’s, Standards and Poor and Fitch Rating
have around 95% of the global rating business
Multiplicity – but of a Tocquevillian type??
“American society appears dynamic and agitated
because men and things change constantly but it also
appears monotonous because all those changes are
the same”
Tocqueville, De la Démocratie en Amérique
Do we have real competition or Meta-
standardization/Meta-convergence through time?
Using science as a legitimating tool
In the absence of democratic and political
representativity and legitimacy
Can only reinforce the production of
numbers, measures, systematic
categorization
Govern the traditional sources of
governing authorities (Central banks,
Universities, Nation-states….)
• Those who in fact RULE AND GOVERN today are the
(transnational) standard makers, the producers of those
systems of measures
• Who are they? What interests do they serve?
• How can they be questioned and challenged?
”Not everything that counts can be counted
and not everything that can be counted
counts” Einstein.
From transparency as domination… Back
to transparency as liberation?
How do we bend/break the iron cage?