Domains of Equivalence

A domain of equivalence is a socially constructed epistemic space within which concrete entities and experiences are transposed into interchangeable representations, frequently through processes of quantification and commensuration. Governmental knowledge establishes equivalence between concrete persons and things and non-commensurable values via their abstract representations. When such representations are rendered fungible through processes of quantification and commensuration, this substitutability is raised to a second power. They can now be seamlessly combined, separated, extracted for analysis, or substituted for one another – operations which may be retrojected back onto the social phenomena being represented. Consequently, at the heart of any field of governmental knowledge we find an effort to construct a domain of equivalence within which the objects of knowledge can be rendered mutually equivalent and substitutable, irrespective of space or time, social or cultural context, or variations in personal experience. Such domains of equivalence tend to expand relentlessly, as more and more aspects of reality are translated into their terms. Moreover, in the course of developing standardised measures and systems of classification, reality itself is reshaped, as social life increasingly comes to accord with the concepts and metrics by which it is anatomised.