Audit Culture

Cris Shore is Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, Central European University. One of his recent publications is The Shapeshifting Crown and he and Susan Wright are co-editors of the Anthropology of Policy book series for Stanford University Press.Susan Wright is Professor of Educational Anthropology at Aarhus University, Denmark. Her latest publication is Enacting the University. With Cris Shore, she is the co-editor of the Anthropology of Policy book series for Stanford University Press and Death of the Public University?.

• List of FiguresAbbreviationsAcknowledgementsSeries PrefacePreface1. Introduction: Audit Culture and the New World (Dis)Order2. Rankings as Populist Project: Governing by Numbers and Hollowing out Democracy3. The Big Four Accountancy Firms and the Evolution of Contemporary Capitalism4. Global Governance through Standards, Seduction and Soft Power5. Metrics, Managerialism and Market Making: Unlocking Value in Healthcare6. Reforming Higher Education: The Kafkaesque Pursuit of ‘World Class’ Status7. The New Subjects of Audit: Performance Management and Quantified Selves8. Conclusion: Repurposing Audit – Restoring Trust, Accountability and DemocracyBibliographyIndex

'A new and compelling argument for why so many institutions continue to be spellbound by rankings and metrics - despite the cultural carnage they cause in schools, hospitals, universities, corporations and governmental agencies. How can we halt this 'death by audit' craze that has swept through modern society like a deadly virus? In this thought provoking book, the authors develop a radical agenda that will strike fear into number-loving technocrats around the world.'