La Performance Totale : Nouvel Esprit du Capitalisme ?

Considering performance measurement in the imperative register of metrology, as is increasingly the case in contemporary economies, does not only have a 'reductive' effect. By operating through numbers, the very forms of political prescription and life in society are transformed. Ignoring pluralistic forms of evaluation (particularly the evaluation of public policies) means removing from the registers of effectiveness that which asserted the general interest. The civic or civil dimensions of access to services for all, of well-being through work, of maintaining and consolidating public rights, are no longer taken into account when measuring the performance of a "service provider" state. A state that provides services acts in a way that is characterised by a permanent injunction to encourage people to work and to increase the intensity of their work; by an economistic rather than civic representation of the individual; by an injunction to evaluate the performance of these homo oeconomicus; and by the end of the recognition and guarantee of republican values such as equality and citizenship. How did it come to this? This is the question explored in this book, which also provides food for thought on how to move away from total performance, both temporarily and permanently.