Auditing fuses public relations with bureaucracy for promotional aims
Evidence
The proliferation of auditing culture in post Fordism indicates that the demise of the big Other has been exaggerated. Auditing can perhaps best be conceived of as fusion of PR and bureaucracy, because the bureaucratic data is usually intended to fulfill a promotional role: in the case of education, for example, exam results or research ratings augment (or diminish) the prestige of particular institutions. The frustration for the teacher is that it seems as if their work is increasingly aimed at impressing the big Other which is collating and consuming this ‘data’. ‘Data’ has been put in inverted commas here, because much of the so-called information has little meaning or application outside the parameters of the audit: as Eeva Berglund puts it, ‘the information that audit creates does have consequences even though it is so shorn of local detail, so abstract, as to be misleading or meaningless - except, that is, by the aesthetic criteria of audit itself. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 102
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines the distinctive post-Fordist audit form as PR merged with bureaucracy rather than neutral measurement.
- XREF: Relates to the reader’s broader interest in institutional incentives and how measured surrogates replace actual goals. — connects to: Marketizing inherently unquantifiable services requires added bureaucracy — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 91; Auditing is a fusion of public relations and bureaucracy — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 102; Marketisation imposed on public services breeds bureaucracy geared to producing appearances — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2211 (+3 more)
Related
- Auditing is a fusion of public relations and bureaucracy (similarity 0.92)
- Post-Fordist management expanded bureaucracy by making workers their own auditors (similarity 0.81)
- Marketizing inherently unquantifiable services requires added bureaucracy (similarity 0.80)
Broader Connections
- Post-Fordist management expanded bureaucracy by making workers their own auditors
#expands(0.78) - Marketisation imposed on public services breeds bureaucracy geared to producing appearances
#complicates(0.75) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2211 - Pseudo-activity substitutes publicity for actual satisfaction.
#exemplifies(0.72) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 270 - Publicizing conference attendance signals access, connections, and insider status.
#exemplifies(0.70) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 197