L'università tra misure, dismisure, contromisure

With particular regard to the 'avaluations' of scientific research, the article focuses on the confusion between evaluation and measurement, which, instead of serving the former, often claims to replace it. This means that some mysterious numbers should not only explain a certain phenomenon, but also govern it. The neoliberal order is founded on 'evaluative' and 'evaluated' States. Political evaluations are reduced to economic measurements. Numbers are considered clear, rational, objective, therefore non-political and more reliable than words, lines of reasoning, negotiations. Numbers make everything and everyone comparable. Numbers indicate what is normal, then it is everyone's responsibility to align oneself. Numbers go beyond the need to distinguish right-wing policies from left-wing policies; which make parliaments substantially irrelevant and turn goverments into executors of indicators, indexes, algorithms. The Italian university system too has 'modernized' itself to be governed by national and international league-tables of universities, departments, journals, publishers. Too many researchers consent to 'evaluate' colleagues who would deserve to be scientifically read and discussed. On the other hand, being perpetually under 'evaluation', researchers live, even until retirement, the dilemma whether to sacrifice their careers, to study topics which they are interested in, or their academic freedom, to try to climb the hierarchy by studying topics more useful to get qualifications and win competitions.