Quasi-objects and Their Institutionalisations

What is lost in meaning when phenomena are translated into the terms of governmental knowledge is gained in power. A domain of equivalence is a liminal void or artificial matrix: a space in which concrete entities can be conceptually and statistically dismembered and then reconstituted in novel combinations, ad infinitum. Borrowing from Michel Serres, I term these statistical and conceptual constructs ‘quasi-objects’. These are synthetic entities such as ‘teaching quality’, ‘research productivity’, or ‘customer care’ which are treated as objective realities and exert objective force on social conduct due to their institutionalisation. A huge proportion of what is presented as objective, factual knowledge in today’s world actually consists of quasi-objects. Quasi-objects shape social expectations and are internalised as norms and thereby become actants shaping social conduct. At the same time, despite their seeming objectivity, they remain fluid, flexible, and manipulable, enabling the continual reform, refinement, and reorganisation which is central to managerialism. The manufacture, circulation, and institutionalisation of such quasi-objects is at the heart of managerial governance, and as this has spread to new fields and intensified its hold on contemporary societies, the ubiquity of quasi-objects and the rapidity of their circulation have increased exponentially.