Devices of evaluation: Institutionalization and impact—Introduction to the special issue

Julian Hamann, Frerk Blome and Anna Kosmützky

Research Evaluation, 2022, vol. 31, issue 4, 423-428

Abstract: This introduction outlines the analytical potential of the concept of ‘device’ that is key to the special issue ‘Devices of evaluation’. Evaluation relies not only on the human capacity to value, classify, compare, or judge, but also on social operators that affect evaluations in different ways. The notion of ‘devices’ puts the focus not on human actors but on things, tools, and instruments, on (infra-)structures and procedures, on assemblages and constellations which human actors either draw on when they attribute value or worth, or which have their own agentic capacity and facilitate or enforce evaluations themselves. We propose three perspectives through which a focus on devices can have analytical potential and thus contribute to the study of evaluation in academia: Devices facilitate and accomplish evaluation as trans-situational relays, they connect different forms of evaluation, and they enable, guide, and shape comparisons among very different valuation constellations and contexts. Broadening the focus in this way, the concept can improve our understanding of the non-human side of evaluation. The contributions to this special convey the idea that devices of evaluation are crucial for understanding the production, diffusion, and institutionalization of value and worth in academic contexts.

Keywords: agency; comparison; devices; evaluation; impact; institutionalization; valuation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/reseval/rvac047 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:rseval:v:31:y:2022:i:4:p:423-428.

Access Statistics for this article

Research Evaluation is currently edited by Julia Melkers, Emanuela Reale and Thed van Leeuwen

More articles in Research Evaluation from Oxford University Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().