The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Sverre Spoelstra, portrait image.

Sverre Spoelstra

Senior lecturer

Sverre Spoelstra, portrait image.

Beyond measure

Author

  • Nick Butler
  • Helen Delaney
  • Emilie Hesselbo
  • Sverre Spoelstra

Summary, in English

Numbers reveal, but they also hide; they tell us who we are, but also who we ought to become; they show us how happy and healthy we are, but also urge us to adjust ourselves to the norm. Numbers manage us and we, in turn, manage ourselves through numbers. At the same time, the rationale behind these metrics remains inaccessible to us, stored safely away in a locket, kept secret from all but the few who have access to these systems of enumeration and computation. In our special issue, we open up this locket and explore questions around measurement in relation to management, organization, and politics –namely, how do processes of quantification intervene in our lives, sideline other modes of judgement and decision, and lead us astray with a trail of numbers. The title oft he special issue, ‘Beyond measure’, signals an attempt to denaturalize measurement, to peel back the layers of commensuration to see what lies beneath.

Department/s

  • Organizational Studies

Publishing year

2020-08

Language

English

Pages

1-16

Publication/Series

Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organization

Volume

20

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article (comment)

Publisher

www.ephemerajournal.org

Topic

  • Social Sciences Interdisciplinary

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2052-1499