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+

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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

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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?