1. How university rankings are made through globally coordinated action: a transnational institutional ethnography in the sociology of quantification
- Author
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Barron, Gary R. S.
- Subjects
Ethnography -- Educational aspects ,Universities and colleges -- Rankings -- Canada ,Education - Abstract
The sociologies of quantification, university rankings, and infrastructure are a loosely connected set of scholarly endeavors. Research in these areas typically examines production of certain types of quantification, their effects, and institutionalization. Despite these commonalities, scholars have noted a lack of conceptual coherence, debates on how to study quantification, a need to examine their socio-epistemological prerequisites, and research that crosses organization and national boundaries. In this paper, I argue that institutional ethnography-an alternative sociology for people-provides a unifying ontology for the sociology of quantification and studies of rankings and metrics in higher education. Institutional ethnography examines socio-epistemological prerequisites of quantification and facilitates a collaborative transnational project due to its focus on the extra local coordination of action. I also share results of the first transnational institutional ethnography of university rankings and related metrics, demonstrating coordinated action across several junctures of what has been called a global university ranking surveillance assemblage., Author(s): Gary R. S. Barron [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) https://ror.org/05np0jp17, grid.435654.5, 0000 0000 9945 0642, Centre for Justice and Human Services, Lethbridge College, , Lethbridge, AB, Canada Introduction I recently [...]
- Published
- 2023
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