Abstract
The visualization of ranking information in global public policy is moving away from traditional “league table” formats and toward dashboards and interactive data displays. This paper explores the rhetoric underpinning the visualization of ranking information in such interactive formats, the purpose of which is to encourage country participation in reporting on the Sustainable Development Goals. The paper unpacks the strategies that the visualization experts adopt in the measurement of global poverty and wellbeing, focusing on a variety of interactive ranking visualizations produced by the OECD, the World Bank, the Gates Foundation and the ‘Our World in Data’ group at the University of Oxford. Building on visual and discourse analysis, the study details how the politically and ethically sensitive nature of global public policy, coupled with the pressures for “decolonizing” development, influence how rankings are visualized. The study makes two contributions to the literature on rankings. First, it details the move away from league table formats toward multivocal interactive layouts that seek to mitigate the competitive and potentially dysfunctional pressures of the display of “winners and losers.” Second, it theorizes ranking visualizations in global public policy as “alignment devices” that entice country buy-in and seek to align actors around common global agendas.
Highlights
Rankings are ubiquitous devices for monitoring and assessing performance, as well as for supporting the implementation of social and environmental reforms around the world
Through the discourse and visual analysis of some of the rankings used in global poverty and the measurement of wellbeing, we investigate the visual and rhetorical strategies that influential global actors use to communicate the outcomes of performance measurement initiatives
We present the findings of our exploration of ranking visualizations in global public policy
Summary
Rankings are ubiquitous devices for monitoring and assessing performance, as well as for supporting the implementation of social and environmental reforms around the world (e.g., the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development). The emerging paradigm of global governance declares the turn toward country “ownership” of how performance information is produced, communicated, and acted upon (Fukuda-Parr, 2016) and, crucially, reflects the increasing sensitivity toward issues of data “democratization” and the pressures to “decolonize” global governance (Quijano, 2007; Rottenburg, 2009) These critiques highlight how the historical, cultural, and sociological underpinnings of eminently Western technologies of quantification such as rankings can contribute to the “data colonization” of the Global North upon the Global South (Arora, 2016). Building on the literature on reactivity (Espeland & Sauder, 2007; Pollock et al, 2018; Sauder & Espeland, 2009; Slager & Gond, 2020), we show that ranking visualizations engage their users in global public policy by allowing for interactivity, through features such as customization, multivocality, and edutainment. As such, ranking visualizations align actors with diverse interests and interpretations of performance by allowing for the co-existence of multiple, often contradictory interpretations of one ranking – a quality which is facilitated by the interactive visualizations
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
