300351 Organization and Evaluation: Likes, Ranking, Performance Indicators (BS) (WiSe 2025/2026)

Evaluations are not only part of everyday life, they also play a key role in how organizations function. In this seminar, we willll explore the many different forms evaluations can take, such as performance indicators, expert reviews, likes, quality reports, or rankings.

Taking a perspective from organizational sociology, we’ll ask: What are the conditions, functions, and consequences of these evaluations for formal organizations? To answer this, we’ll read and discuss a mix of theoretical texts and empirical studies from the sociology of valuation and organizations.

The readings will cover both general topics (like categorization and quantification) and specific forms of evaluation (like rankings). In addition to our discussions, you will also have the opportunity to explore real-world examples and conduct small-scale field observations as part of the seminar.

Literaturangaben

Krüger, A. K., Peetz, T., & Schäfer, H. (Eds.). (2025). The Routledge international handbook of valuation and society. Routledge.