Making serious measures: numerical indices, peer review, and transnational actor-networks

Abstract

Numerical indices and peer review processes, which are used increasingly to assess and rank countries, are relatively novel governance instruments. They have serious practical consequences and pose conceptual challenges for conventional international relations theories. This article draws on concepts from actor-network theory (ANT) to analyse the differences between these two mechanisms, their relationship to networks, their differing materialities, and how they succeed or fail. These concepts include actants, translation, enrolment, black-boxing, obligatory passage points, and immutable or mutable mobiles, which together provide useful insights into the way in which humans and objects work together in transnational networks to produce, alter, or resist power. The article argues that ANT can address some problems associated with the concept of governmentality, while complementing its strengths. Numerical indices and peer review processes engage with humans, objects, and networks in different ways and this can alter how larger global forces are or are not transmitted, modified, or resisted. The article explores the empirical relevance of these concepts by examining the World Governance Indicators and the African Peer Review Mechanism review of Benin.