Escaping Numbers

Bibliographic Data

ID21237460
AuthorsRadhika Gorur (0000-0002-4528-0793, Deakin University, corresponding author)
Year2018
Pages89-108
Publication date2018-07-12
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience & Technology Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2243-4690 • E-ISSN: 2243-4690
PublisherScience and Technology Studies (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.23987/sts.56745
OpenAlexW2910075230
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited13

Numbers have long been associated with statecraft. In bureaucratic processes of accounting, regulation was effected by forming centres of calculation. This paper suggests that contemporary post-bureaucratic regimes are evolving new forms of accounting, in which the centre inserts itself into individual sites to exercise authority. This ‘intimate accounting’ involves technologies of transparency through which individual sites such as schools are required to declare intimate information publicly. In turn, the public, armed with information, is exhorted to become informed and to exercise influence on institutions to excel and to hold them to account. Using the case of Australia’s ‘Education Revolution’, this paper describes the processes of intimate accounting. It then explores the efforts to resist, subvert and undo such calculations. Finally, it speculates on why these calculations have continued to appear robust in the face of opposition and what would need to be done to escape or resist such calculations. Keywords: Sociology of Numbers; Education Policy and Numbers; Accountability

Accountability · Bureaucracy · Economics · Political science · Sociology · Undo · Computer Science · Educational Assessment and Improvement · Law · Accounting

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