4 - The Diversity of Evaluative Powers

Summary

Chapter 4 examines the diversity of research evaluation systems. It does so by considering representative national systems, that is, those implemented in Australia, China, Nordic countries (Norway, Denmark, and Finland), Poland, Russia, and the United Kingdom. The chapter begins with an examination of why the Journal Impact Factor has become the most popular proxy for research quality. Next, international citation indexes and university rankings are analyzed. Taking up Chapter 2’s insight that evaluative power deploys economization and metricization both as tools of modernization and as a means of controlling academia, the chapter then characterizes evaluative powers along three intersecting planes (global, national, and local). These have the greatest influence over the varied expressions of the evaluation game and allow for the elaboration of a comprehensive view of current research evaluation regimes in the Global North and South, and in countries of the East. The chapter goes on to show that while evaluation regimes operate in all parts of the world, each region has its own specificity, as detailed in this chapter.