Paul Prinsloo, University of South AfricaSharon Slade, Open UniversityImage credit: http://hominidas.blogs.quo.es/2013/11/; http://www.exponerat.net/socialdemokratins-bruna-bakgrund/; http://

webbplatser.nordiskamuseet.se/minaogon/sida/historia/hist2.htm

The researcher as quantified self: Confessions & contestations

By Paul PrinslooPresentation at SOTL@UJ - Towards a Socially Just Pedagogy 14 May 2015

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSI do not own the copyright of any of the images in this presentation. I hereby acknowledge the original copyright and licensing regime of every image and reference used. All the images used in this presentation have been sourced from Google labeled for non-commercial re-use.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

OVERVIEW OF THE PRESENTATION

1. Some questions for consideration2. Becoming & being measured, deviant or hero3. The higher education context: Broader context, the move

to digital & networked identities & the changing rules of performing research

4. The notion & praxis of being & becoming a quantified self 5. Five modes of self-tracking (Lupton, 2014c)6. The quantified (digital) self: some considerations7. Deviants or heroes: The net effect of being quantified &

classified8. (In)conclusions

Some questions to consider:• How does the dominant auditing and managerialist culture in

higher education, and the current quantification fetish obsessed with measuring outputs & performance, impact on my identity & performance as researcher?

• What do we measure? Who does the measurement & why, based on what criteria?

• What is not measured & how does this impact on my final score? What am I worth? My sense of self?

• How do I (increasingly) track my own performance in an unending obsession & anxiety about whether I do enough/am good enough?

• How does all of this impact on my identity, my self-worth & sense of wellbeing?

(See Prinsloo, 2014)

We are increasingly watched/measured

We increasingly watch/measure each

other

We increasingly watch ourselves

Image credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance#/media/File:Surveillance_video_cameras,_Gdynia.jpeg

Image credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-interest

Every breath I/you takeEvery move I/you makeEvery bond I/you breakEvery step I/you take

I'll be watching myself/you

Every single dayEvery word I/you say

Every game I/you playEvery night I/you stay

I'll be watching myself/you

O can't I/you seeI/You belong to them/me…

Adapted from Sting – Every breath you take

Becoming and being measured, deviant or hero

Image credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_anthropometry

What type of sociocultural, political, economic & regulatory context creates the notion & praxis of the researcher

as quantified self?

How are researchers as quantified selves structurally defined & generated, maintained, culled or lauded? (see Spitzer, 1975)

The higher education context• The broader higher

education context• The move to digital and

networked identities• The (changing) rules of

performing research

The notion and practices of the quantified self

The researcher

as quantified

self

Becoming and being measured, deviant or hero

What type of sociocultural, political, economic and regulatory context s creates the notion of the researcher as quantified self?

How are researchers as quantified selves structurally defined & generated, maintained, culled or lauded? (see Spitzer, 1975)

The higher education context1. The broader higher

education context2. The move to digital and

networked identities3. The (changing) rules of

performing research

The notion and practices of the quantified self

The researcher

as quantified

self

Higher education should…

• Do more with less• Expect funding to follow performance rather than preceding it• Realise it costs too much, spends carelessly, teaches poorly, plans

myopically, and when questioned, acts defensively(Hartley, 1995, p. 412, 861)

We need to take note of the impact of the dominant models of neoliberalism and its not-so-humble servant – managerialism – on higher education (Deem, 1998; Deem & Brehony, 2005; Diefenbach, 2007; Peters, 2013; Verhaeghe, 2014)

The broader higher education context (1)

Image credit: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mcdonalds_logo.png

There is talk of “academic capitalism” (Rhoades & Slaughter, 2004) where academics “sell their expertise to the highest bidder, research collaboratively, and teaching on/off line, locally and internationally” (Blackmore 2001, p. 353; emphasis added)

“The research universities will have three classes of professors, like the airlines. A small first-class cabin of researchers, a business-class section of academics who will teach and do some research, and a large economy cabin of poorly paid teachers” (Altbach & Finkelstein, 2014, par. 16; emphasis added)

“… the academic precariat has risen as a reserve army of workers with ever shorter, lower paid, hyper-flexible contracts and ever more temporally fragmented and geographically displaced hyper-mobile lives” (Ivancheva, 2015, p. 39)

The broader higher education context (2)

In 2012, of the 1.5 million professors in the US, 1 million are adjunct professors appointed on a contract basis (Scott, 2012)

Higher education is therefore in the process of becoming unbundled and unmoored (Watters, 2012)

The broader higher education context (3)

Image credit: http://pixabay.com/p-485222/?no_redirect

Becoming and being measured, deviant or hero

What type of sociocultural, political, economic and regulatory context s creates the notion of the researcher as quantified self?

How are researchers as quantified selves structurally defined & generated, maintained, culled or lauded? (see Spitzer, 1975)

The higher education context1. The broader higher

education context2. The move to digital and

networked identities3. The (changing) rules of

performing research

The notion and practices of the quantified self

The researcher

as quantified

self

The move to digital & networked scholarly/researcher identities• Porous/disappearing boundaries between

personal/professional/private/public• Changing conventions of definition of

knowledge, ways of knowledge production, dissemination, peer-review & measuring impact

• Alternative metrics• Inhabiting spaces/performing research

Image credit: http://www.philips.nl/e/nederland-blog/blog/de-marketingspecialist-moet-digitaal-zijn.html

Becoming and being measured, deviant or hero

What type of sociocultural, political, economic and regulatory context s creates the notion of the researcher as quantified self?

How are researchers as quantified selves structurally defined & generated, maintained, culled or lauded? (see Spitzer, 1975)

The higher education context1. The broader higher

education context2. The move to digital and

networked identities3. The (changing) rules of

performing research

The notion and practices of the quantified self

The researcher

as quantified

self

Hartzing’s Publish or Perish

The (traditional) rules of performing researchUnisa’s Strategic Plan 2015 clearly states the intention: “To position Unisa in the Top 5 universities in South Africa in terms of research outputs per academic by 2015 (Placed 6th in 2004 in numerical outputs)” (Unisa, 2015, p. 17).

Research criteria: • Publish my own research whether as articles or chapters. To score a 3 out

of 5, I need to have published 7 individual articles in the last 3 years, or 10 individual articles in the last 5 years. If I co-authored the article with another researcher – I only get half the points

• A further 15% weight is allocated if I submitted a grant application to an external funding agency. To score 3 out of 5, my grant should have been successful.

• 10% of the total weighting is allocated to being a rated researcher. A ‘C-rating’ guarantees me a 3 out of 5.

But… the rules of performing research are changing …

Image credit: http://blog-blond.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html

Becoming and being measured, deviant or hero

What type of sociocultural, political, economic and regulatory context s creates the notion of the researcher as quantified self?

How are researchers as quantified selves structurally defined & generated, maintained, culled or lauded? (see Spitzer, 1975)

The higher education context• The broader higher

education context• The move to digital and

networked identities• The (changing) rules of

performing research

The notion and practices of the quantified self

The researcher

as quantified

self

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cmichel67/9309088371/ http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantified_Self

We monitor ourselves. We monitor each other. We are monitored…

I am my data. I am what I share.

If I did not share it on Facebook, did it happen?

Image credit: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bot%C3%B3n_Me_gusta.svg

Jennifer Ringely – 1996-2003 – webcam Source: http://onedio.com/haber/tum-zamanlarin-en-etkili-ve-onemli-internet-videolari-36465

“Secrets are lies”“Sharing is caring”“Privacy is theft”

(Eggers, 2013, p. 303)

Five modes of self-tracking (Lupton, 2014c)

1. Private self-tracking: Achieving self-awareness, improving life-quality – what I did, how I did it and what I’ve learned

2. Pushed self-tracking: Voluntarily but encouraged/rewarded3. Communal self-tracking: Sharing your numbers – the

quantified us – “I ran so far…”, “I took so many steps”, “I have so many new Twitter followers”, etc

4. Imposed self-tracking: Compulsory, productivity self-tracking devices

5. Exploited self-tracking: Commercialisation of personal data

(Also see Lupton 2014a, 2014b)

The quantified (digital) self: some considerations• The potential & limitations of “self knowledge through

numbers”• Collecting my data & tracking myself as a way “to talk back”, to

“contest”, to formulate counter-narratives• The dangers of exploitation of my data• The nature, use & misuse of digital, (a)synchronous peer-review• The virtue of forgetting in a digital age…• The bias of algorithms• The secret lives of our data-doubles (Lupton, 2014a)• I am more than what I share, what can be counted – I am more

than my data

Deviants or heroes: The net effect of being quantified & classified

“Academic labor and performance anxiety”: where the “shame [of not performing] becomes a central tenet of everyday academic life” (Richard Hall (2014a, par. 2)

Academics “overwork because the current culture in universities is brutally and deliberately invested in shaming those who don’t compete effectively…” in stark contrast with the heroic few who do, somehow, meet the shifting goalposts (Kate Bowles, 2014, par. 7-8)

Image credits: http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Karloffhttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Superman_S_symbol.svg

We acknowledge the exhilaration, the abundance, the networks, but…

(Re)considering scholarship: From quantified selves to qualified selves…

• We cannot & should not ignore our context in the context of the quantification fetish in higher education

• As a researcher, I am much more than my data, my citations, the number of followers on Twitter, the number of hits on my blog

• I can, however, use my networks & online presences to play the field, increase my impact & reach

• “Scholarship is not just about publication, but about interaction, interpretation, exchange, deliberation, discourse, debate, and controversy” (Gray, 2013, par. 5). Scholarship is therefore “not just the production of text” but in its essence about “the way in which constellations of people and objects produce meaning, understanding and insight, through interaction, acts of interpretation” (Gray, 2013, par. 6)

Goodier, S., & Czerniewicz, L. (2012). Academics’ online presence. A four-step guide to taking control of your visibility. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/2279505/Academics_online_presence_A_four-step_guide_to_taking_control_of_your_visibility

What type of sociocultural, political, economic & regulatory contexts creates the notion and praxis of the researcher as

quantified self?

How are researchers as quantified selves structurally defined & generated, maintained, culled or lauded? (see Spitzer, 1975)

The higher education context• The broader higher

education context• The move to digital and

networked identities• The (changing) rules of

performing research

The notion and practices of the quantified self

The researcher

as quantified

self

(In)conclusions

Last thing I remember, I wasRunning for the door

I had to find the passage backTo the place I was before

"Relax, " said the night man,"We are programmed to receive.

You can check-out any time you like,But you can never leave! "

Eagles – Hotel California

THANK YOUPaul Prinsloo

Research Professor in Open Distance Learning (ODL)College of Economic and Management Sciences, Office number 3-15, Club 1,

Hazelwood, P O Box 392Unisa, 0003, Republic of South Africa

T: +27 (0) 12 433 4719 (office)T: +27 (0) 82 3954 113 (mobile)

prinsp@unisa.ac.za Skype: paul.prinsloo59

Personal blog: http://opendistanceteachingandlearning.wordpress.com

Twitter profile: @14prinsp

References

Altbach, P.G., & Finkelstein, M.J. (2014, October 7). Forgetting the faculty. InsideHigherEd. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/10/07/essay-way-many-reformers-higher-education-are-ignoring-faculty-role

Blackmore, J. (2001). Universities in crisis? Knowledge economies, emancipatory pedagogies, and the critical intellectual. Educational Theory, 51(3), 353 — 370.

Bowles, K. (2014, March 5). Walking and learning. [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://musicfordeckchairs.wordpress.com/2014/03/05/walking-and-learning/

Deem, R., & Brehony, K.J. (2005). Management as ideology: the case of ‘new managerialism’ in higher education. Oxford Review of Education, 31(2), 217—235. DOI: 10.1080/03054980500117827

Deem, R. (2011). ‘New managerialism’ and higher education: the management of performances and cultures in universities in the United Kingdom. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 8(1), 47—70. DOI: 10.1080/0962021980020014

Diefenbach, T. (2007). The managerialistic ideology of organisational change management. of Organisational Change Management, 20(1), 126 — 144.

Goodier, S., & Czerniewicz, L. (2012). Academics’ online presence. A four-step guide to taking control of your visibility. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/2279505/Academics_online_presence_A_four-step_guide_to_taking_control_of_your_visibility

Gray, J. (2013, October 25). Recomposing scholarship: the critical ingredients for a more inclusive scholarly communication system. [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2013/10/25/gray-recomposing-scholarship/

Hall, R. (2014a, March 5). On academic labour and performance anxiety. [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.richard-hall.org/2014/03/05/on-academic-labour-and-performance-anxiety/

Hall, R. (2014b, August 22). On chronic fatigue and being increasingly anxiety-hardened. [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.richard-hall.org/2014/08/22/on-chronic-fatigue-and-being-increasingly-anxiety-hardened/

Hartley, D. (1995). The ‘McDonaldization’of higher education: food for thought?. Oxford Review of Education, 21(4), 409-423.

Ivancheva, M. P. (2015). The age of precarity and the new challenges to the academic profession. Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai-Studia Europaea, (1), 39-48.

Lupton, D. (2014a). Self-tracking cultures: Towards a sociology of personal informatics. Retrieved from http://www.canberra.edu.au/researchrepository/file/89265416-5c81-4d4c-bed3-948c2d9a0734/1/full_text_postprint.pdf

Lupton, D. (2014b). You are your data: Self-tracking practices and concepts of data. Available at SSRN.Lupton, D. (2014c). You are Your Data: Self-Tracking Practices and Concepts of Data. Available at SSRN. Peters, M.A. (2013). Managerialism and the neoliberal university: prospects for new forms of ‘open management’

in higher education. Contemporary Readings in Law and Social Justice, 5(1), 11—26Prinsloo, P. (2014). Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin: researcher identity and performance. Retrieved from

http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Paul_Prinsloo/publication/267395307_Mene_mene_tekel_upharsin_researcher_identity_and_performance/links/544f2f200cf29473161bf642.pdf

Rhoades, G., & Slaughter, S. (2004). Academic capitalism in the new economy: markets, state, and higher education. Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Scott, D.L. (2012, October 16). How higher education in the US was destroyed in 5 basic steps. AlterNet. [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.alternet.org/how-higher-education-us-was-destroyed-5-basic-steps

Spitzer, S. (1975). Toward a Marxian theory of deviance. Social problems, 22(5), 638-651.

Verhaeghe, P. (2014, September 29). Neoliberalism has brought out the worst in us. [Web log post]. TheGuardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/29/neoliberalism-economic-system-ethics-personality-psychopathicsthic

Watters, A. (2012). Unbundling and unmooring: technology and the higher ed tsunami. EDUCAUSEreview, [online]. Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/unbundling-and-unmooring-technology-and-higher-ed-tsunami

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.