DeepSummary
The episode features a discussion with sociologist Kieran Healy about his new book 'The Ordinal Society', which explores how modern technology enables the pervasive ranking and classification of people across various social institutions. Healy explains how this phenomenon, driven by data collection and algorithmic processing, impacts individuals' opportunities and experiences in areas like finance, employment, and consumer services.
Healy contrasts the romantic notion of individual authenticity and agency in the modern world with the reality of our digital footprints being constantly measured and used to categorize us. He highlights the tension between the convenience these systems offer and the loss of freedom that comes with being incorporated into them. While acknowledging their power and potential benefits, he cautions against the tendency to view such classifications as purely objective or meritocratic.
The conversation touches on the historical context of these developments, from early utopian visions of the internet to the increasing financialization and efficiency-driven expansion of data-driven systems. Healy emphasizes that while pervasive, these systems are not totalizing, as human sociality inevitably overflows and reshapes the boundaries imposed on it.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Modern technology has enabled the unprecedented collection and processing of data about individuals, leading to their pervasive ranking and classification across various social institutions.
- These ranking systems, driven by algorithmic optimization and data analysis, have significant impacts on people's life chances and opportunities in areas like finance, employment, and access to services.
- While often portrayed as objective and meritocratic, these classification schemes reflect and perpetuate existing social stratification and hierarchies.
- There is a tension between the convenience and efficiency offered by these systems, and the loss of individual autonomy and freedom that comes with being incorporated into them.
- Despite their pervasiveness, these technological systems are not totalizing, as human social life inevitably overflows and reshapes the boundaries imposed on it.
- The phenomenon represents a clash between the modern ideals of individual authenticity and rational, technocratic control over social organization.
- Historical examples show the tendency for utopian visions of new technologies to be subverted or reshaped as they are adopted and integrated into existing social structures.
- The implications of these ranking systems extend beyond consumer services to areas like healthcare, law, education, and employment, making them a significant social and ethical concern.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “What's new now is, and what's really sort of transformed not just in sort of scale but also in scope over the last 50 years or so is that the ability to do this has both become much more fine grained and much more widespread, that the scope that we can, the degree to which we can sort of apply these ideas and processes is sort of much wider. A whole range of kind of forms of social life that were just not within reach of any kind of measurement. Certainly not any kind of real time measurement has really expanded.“ by Kieran Healy
- “And even if you think of them as classification schemes that are not intrinsically, that are not trying to rank you, so to speak, that you're just trying to classify, there are very few cases of sort of nominal classifications, unordered classifications that people don't try to then turn into rankings, in part because, I mean, people, you might ask, why is it that that happens again? Where there's differentiation, there's stratification in human societies.“ by Kieran Healy
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Episode Information
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
Sean Carroll | Wondery
6/10/24
We claim to love all of our children, friends, and students equally. But perhaps deep down you assign a ranking to them, from favorite to not-so-favorite. Ranking and quantifying people is an irresistible human tendency, and modern technology has made it ubiquitous. In this episode I talk with sociologist Kieran Healy, who has co-authored (with Marion Fourcade) the new book The Ordinal Society, about how our lives are measured and processed by the technological ecosystem around us. We discuss how this has changed how relate to ourselves and the wider world.
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Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/06/10/278-kieran-healy-on-the-technology-of-ranking-people/
Kieran Healy received his Ph.D. in sociology from Princeton University. He is currently a professor of sociology at Duke University, and a member of the Kenan Institute for Ethics. As an undergraduate at University College Cork he won the Irish Times National Debating competition. He has a longstanding interest in data visualization.
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