Rankings in the Making: On the Social Production of Serial Comparisons

• Applicants: Dr. Leopold Ringel; Professor Dr. Tobias Werron
• Subject Area: Sociological Theory ; Empirical Social Research
• Term: since 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 413942581

Building on prior research by the two principal investigators, the project aims to study the social production of contemporary rankings. We define rankings as repetitive and periodical – ‘serialized’ – practices of comparing that are produced not just be individual organizations but by numerous individual and collective actors. The project conceptualizes the entanglements that result from frequent engagement between these actors as practice formations, which will be explored in situ. The project is composed of two sub-projects, with each project applying qualitative research methods to study one nation-state ranking produced by a non-governmental organization (NGO): the Financial Secrecy Index by the Tax Justice Network and the Climate Change Performance Index by Germanwatch e.V. The case selection is based on the observation that nation-state rankings produced by NGOs emerge from heterogeneous and complex yet also accessible practice formations. Rankings have a cyclical baseline logic – from data collection to the publication as well as multiple activities in the months thereafter –, which the sub-projects take into account when collecting and interpreting data. Both sub-projects address the following research questions: How are the practice formations, in which rankings are located, produced and stabilized? How do these practice formations contribute to the repeated production and institutionalization of serialized rankings? How do these practice formations connect previous and present cycles and how do they facilitate future cycles?

• DFG Programme: Research Grants