Abstract
This chapter provides an extra dimension to the previous discussions of metric power. This chapter acts as a ‘coda’ to the previous chapters. It provides an analysis of the bodily and emotional dimensions of metric power. The key argument of the chapter is that the power of metrics is in how they make us feel. It is in the feelings that metrics evoke that we are cajoled and pushed towards certain behaviours and practices. The chapter returns to the discussion of neoliberalism to argue that metrics are the means by which uncertainty is produced in people. To explore this, the chapter draws upon work on affect, and particularly Margaret Wetherell’s concept of ‘affective practice’, to develop an understanding of the bodily and emotional properties of metric power.
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Beer, D. (2016). Coda: Metric Power and the Production of Uncertainty (How Does Metric Power Make Us Feel?). In: Metric Power. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55649-3_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55649-3_6
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