Trends, Profits, and Prophetic Expertise: Producing and Assessing Value in the Neoliberal University

• In Event: STS and Universities - II

Abstract

Experts working in universities face an inherent tension in the processes by which they and others assess the value of their work. On the one hand, proponents of the so-called knowledge economy demand of them a robust stream of emergent expertise. Because this expertise is emergent, formalized ways of specifying and assessing its quality often do not yet exist. On the other hand, the performance of experts in universities is also increasingly subjected to evaluation techniques that rely on standardized metrics and rankings (Shore and Wright 2000, 20015). In this paper I argue that one popular way that experts have attempted to reconcile this tension is by engaging in what Boltanski and Esquerre (2016, 2017) have characterized as the “trend form of valorization.” Because this form of valorization relies on narrative, rather than analytic, modes of distinguishing quality, expertise that is evaluated according this mode is partially able to escape the reductionist tendencies of audit culture. However, for these narratives to also satisfy the demands of audit culture, they have to be quickly converted into standardized forms of credit. This demand for rapid conversion between narrative and analytic modes of valuation places intense pressures on experts to promote themselves and their work in prophetic ways as they attempt to position themselves on the front-end of academic bandwagons (Fujimura 1988). The argument is illustrated and developed through a reflexive analysis of the author’s own participation in three different trends in academic expertise: human-centered design, technology-driven educational reform, and “design for anthropology” (Murphy 2016).

Author

• Christo Sims, University of California, San Diego