Social indexology, neoliberalism and racialised metrics: legitimising the ‘inferiority’ of Global South countries

Abstract

The article critically examines how the neoliberal ethos has influenced the racialised ranking of countries using indexes, or what I propose to call social indexology (SI). SI refers to the use of quantitative metrics to measure the performance of countries based on selected indicators, often drawn from a pool of Western and neoliberal variables associated with governance, corruption, development and other value-loaded concepts. The article critically examines the methodological, ideological and cultural shortcomings of SI and how it reinforces existing racial stereotypes about the presumed natural differences between ‘advanced’ European societies and ‘backward’ Global South countries. These racialised imageries have continued since the time of Enlightenment, colonialism and slavery and persist even under global neoliberal hegemony today. The use of SI metrics for the purpose of quantified measurement and ranking gives it the appearance of being ‘scientific’ and as such has the implicit ideological power of making the racialised inequality of peoples and countries much more acceptable and natural.

Keywords:

• Social indexology
• metrics
• racialised
• Global South
• inequality
• neoliberalism

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Steven Ratuva

Steven Ratuva, an interdisciplinary scholar, is Professor and Director of the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and former Fulbright Senior Fellow at UCLA, Duke University and Georgetown University. He is Chair of the International Political Science Association Research Committee on Security, Conflict and Democratisation and winner of the 2020 Mertge Medal, New Zealand’s award for research excellence. In 2021 he was elected to the New Zealand Royal Society for his distinguished contribution to interdisciplinary studies. He holds a PhD from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, and his research traverses the fields of sociology, politics, development, anthropology and history.