STS 4561 - Evaluation and Society

(crosslisted) INFO 4561, SOC 4560
(SBA-AS, SSC-AS)

Spring. 4 credits. Student option grading.

Enrollment preference given to: seniors, STS/BSOC majors.

M. Ziewitz.

Evaluation is a pervasive feature of contemporary life. Professors, doctors, countries, hotels, pollution, books, intelligence: there is hardly anything that is not subject to some form of review, rating, or ranking these days. This senior seminar examines the practices, cultures, and technologies of evaluation and asks how value is established, maintained, compared, subverted, resisted, and institutionalized in a range of different settings. Topics include user reviews, institutional audit, ranking and commensuration, algorithmic evaluation, tasting, gossip, and awards. Drawing on case studies from science, technology, culture, accounting, art, environment, and everyday life, we shall explore how evaluation comes to order our lives – and why it is so difficult to resist.