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Engines of Anxiety: Academic Rankings, Reputation, and Accountability . By Wendy Nelson Espeland and Michael Sauder. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2016. Pp. xii+281. $35.00 (paper).
Engines of anxiety: Academic rankings, reputation, and accountability by Wendy Nelson Espeland and Michael Sauder
Radford, A. W. (2017). Engines of Anxiety: Academic Rankings, Reputation, and Accountability . By Wendy Nelson Espeland and Michael Sauder. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2016. Pp. xii+281. $35.00 (paper). Engines of anxiety: Academic rankings, reputation, and accountability by Wendy Nelson Espeland and Michael Sauder. American Journal of Sociology, 123(2), 604-606. https://doi.org/10.1086/692774
As data have become more abundant, the appetite for data to be curated and transformed into simplemetrics that can informdecision making has grown. Yet what are the unintended consequences of establishing such measures?
Wendy Nelson Espeland and Michael Saunder’s new book, Engines of Anxiety: Academic Rankings, Reputation, and Accountability, sheds light on the effects of metrics by examining the role the U.S. News and World Report (USN) law school rankings have had on legal education. Such an examination begs for qualitative data, and the authors draw on an array of sources, including interviews with law school students, deans, admissions staff, and career services staff, law school marketing materials, law school applicants’ chat room discussions, media coverage of rankings, and their field notes from site visits and professional meetings.