The Metric Society (eBook)

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

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

'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

"The book is well grounded in a vast and relevant literature and covers an extensive array of topics, from academic rankings to actuarial justice, through to credit scores, travel reviews, professional assessment, and reputation building through social media, among others. In the process, it offers important insights and raises relevant questions, many of which have a clear Foucaultian inspiration."
Sociological Research Online