Metric Power
This book examines the powerful and intensifying role that metrics play in ordering and shaping our everyday lives. Focusing upon the interconnections between measurement, circulation and possibility, the author explores the interwoven relations between p
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Metric Power
David Beer
Metric Power
David Beer Department of Sociology University of York York, United Kingdom
ISBN 978-1-137-55648-6 ISBN 978-1-137-55649-3 DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-55649-3
(eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016944241 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016 The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identified as the author(s) of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover illustration: © Enigma / Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd. London
For Mum and Dad Some things can’t be measured.
Preface
All books inevitably carry some of the flavour of their times. The pages of this text are no different; they have undoubtedly been embossed with the moment in which it was produced. This book emerged during a time when the presence of metrics was notably escalating in higher education. One recent report has described this as a kind of ‘metric tide’ (Wilsdon et al. 2015). I suspect that my ideas have been tinged by the tincture of these apparent changes in academia. Yet this is certainly not a book about academic work or higher education. Rather, this is a book that I hope will speak to people with a general interest in how power operates today. It is most obviously a book about data assemblages, culture, and new media forms, but I hope that it will also be of some use to those with an interest in questions of power, governance, cultural politics, and political sociology. Amongst these more general aims, and to give an opening feel of its content, this book attempts to provide the reader with the conceptual means for thinking critically about the role of metrics in contemporary society and culture. The book is not comprehensive in its descriptions of the types of metrics that act upon us, but it
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