Go to http://www.johannes-angermuller.net

Johannes Angermuller, Thed van Leeuwen (2019): "On the Social Uses of Scientometrics: The Quantification of Academic Evaluation and the Rise of Numerocracy in Higher Education" In: Ronny Scholz (ed.), Quantifying Approaches to Discourse for Social Scientists, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 89-119

download / télécharger / herunterladen

password-protected download here
Abstract:
Scientometrics is a type of corpus research which measures the scientific output of academic researchers and analyses underlying differences and inequalities among researchers based on their scientific outputs. This contribution discusses the history of the field since Eugene Garfield launched the Science Citation Index in 1963 and investigates its practices and indicators, such as the Journal Impact Factor or the h-index. This contribution places the development of the field in the context of the rise of ‘numerocracy’—a regime of power-knowledge which aims at governing large populations by numbers. By applying and extending Michel Foucault’s governmentality thesis, the authors point out the non-scientific conditions of scientific practices in corpus research and make the case for a socially reflexive approach.

Attention! The electronic version of this text may differ from the paper publication. If you want to use this text, make sure to cite it appropriately.

Attention! La version électronique de ce texte peut différer de la publication en papier. Si vous voulez utilisez ce texte, n'oubliez pas à le citer comme il faut.

Achtung! Die elektronische Version dieses Texts kann sich von der Papierversion unterscheiden. Wenn Sie diesen Text benutzen wollen, vergessen Sie nicht, ihn zu zitieren.