230155 SE The impact of indicators and evaluation on knowledge production (2015S)

Since the 1980s we are witnessing a shift toward the ‘governance of governance’ in research and higher education - a shift in which actors at a remove from the primary epistemic process are institutionalizing new forms of science policy. This trend is not restricted to academic settings - many professions are undergoing the same move toward an ‘evaluation society’ (Dahler-Larsen 2012). This course will consider the emergence of evaluation as a particular form of governance in Western knowledge economies. Probing indicator-based accounts of quality, we will zoom in on the ways in which numbers are increasingly generative of norms and values that shape how research is carried out and communicated. The class will discuss a number of concrete instruments used to standardize quality assessment - including rankings. It will also consider how actors in the science system actively appropriate a preoccupation with ‘excellence’ through a personalized process of identity formation seemingly in tension with standardization and quantification. We will close with an exploration of how ethnographic methods can inform the actual design of performance indicators as well as research and innovation policy-making.