Social indexology, neoliberalism and racialised metrics
Legitimising the ‘inferiority’ of Global South countries
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11185384 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Steven Ratuva (0000-0002-2393-4581, University of Canterbury, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 42 |
| Issue | 9 |
| Pages | 2096-2114 |
| Publication date | 2021-09-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Third World Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0143-6597 • E-ISSN: 1360-2241 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01436597.2021.1913406 |
| OpenAlex | W3161463627 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 42 |
The article critically examines how the neoliberal ethos has influenced the racialised ranking of countries using indexes, or what I propose to call social indexology (SI). SI refers to the use of quantitative metrics to measure the performance of countries based on selected indicators, often drawn from a pool of Western and neoliberal variables associated with governance, corruption, development and other value-loaded concepts. The article critically examines the methodological, ideological and cultural shortcomings of SI and how it reinforces existing racial stereotypes about the presumed natural differences between ‘advanced’ European societies and ‘backward’ Global South countries. These racialised imageries have continued since the time of Enlightenment, colonialism and slavery and persist even under global neoliberal hegemony today. The use of SI metrics for the purpose of quantified measurement and ranking gives it the appearance of being ‘scientific’ and as such has the implicit ideological power of making the racialised inequality of peoples and countries much more acceptable and natural
Colonialism · Corporate governance · Development economics · Economics · Ethos · Hegemony · Ideology · Inequality · Language change · Neoliberalism (international relations · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Racism · Ranking (information retrieval · Social science · Sociology · Corruption and Economic Development · Gender Studies · Income, Poverty, and Inequality · Law · Social and Economic Development in India
The dynamics of modernization
Racism and Colonialism
The Tyranny of Metrics
The McDonaldization Thesis
Discipline and Punish
The Passing of Traditional Society
Racism from the Enlightenment to the Age of Imperialism
The Palgrave Handbook of Ethnicity
Race and the Origins of American Neoliberalism
Race, racism and development
Security
Governing by numbers
Max Weber's Vision for Bureaucracy
Invisibility of Racism in the Global Neoliberal Era
Revisiting Enlightenment racial classification
New managerialism, neoliberalism and ranking
Trapped by history
Improving ratings’
Apartheid, International Law, and the Occupied Palestinian Territory
Power, Resistance and Development in the Global South
Extractive industries and Indigenous subsistence economies
The case for colonialism
University ranking as social exclusion
The Comparative Imagination
The Military-Industrial Complex
Political Development and Political Decay
How Taxing is Corruption on International Investors
Discourse, Deficit and Identity
History, Quantification, and the Social Sciences
Audit Culture and Anthropology
Audit culture and Illiberal governance
Rankings and Reactivity
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,75 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |