The tyranny of transparency

What might an academic and a social anthropologist have to say about 'makin g the invisible visible'? Taking ifs title from a paper by Tsoukas ('The Ty ranny of Light'), the result is a short excursus into the social world of a ccountability. Techniques for assessing, auditing and evaluating institutio ns al-e often defended on the grounds of transparency. What is interesting about this case is that in a social world where people are conscious of div erse interests, such an appeal to a benevolent or moral visibility is all t oo easily shown to have a tyrannous side-there is nothing innocent about ma king the invisible visible. How are we to understand such deliberate strivi ng for transparency when it is applied, for instance, to research and teach ing in higher education? This experimental account tries to avoid simply ad ding more visibility and more information.