Living with the h-index? Metric assemblages in the contemporary academy

Burrows, Roger. 2012. Living with the h-index? Metric assemblages in the contemporary academy. The Sociological Review, 60(2), pp. 355-372. ISSN 0038-0261 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

This paper examines the relationship between metrics, markets and affect in the contemporary UK academy. It argues that the emergence of a particular structure of feeling amongst academics in the last few years has been closely associated with the growth and development of ‘quantified control’. It examines the functioning of a range of metrics: citations; workload models; transparent costing data; research assessments; teaching quality assessments; and commercial university league tables. It argues that these metrics, and others, although still embedded within an audit culture, increasingly function autonomously as a data assemblage able not just to mimic markets but, increasingly, to enact them. It concludes by posing some questions about the possible implications of this for the future of academic practice.

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2012.02077.x

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Sociology

Dates:

DateEvent
May 2012Published

Item ID:

6560

Date Deposited:

23 Feb 2012 11:59

Last Modified:

29 Apr 2020 15:48

Peer Reviewed:

Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/6560

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