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Resisting and Re/Counting the Power of Number

The one in the many and the many in the one

  • Chapter
Discourse, Power, and Resistance Down Under

Part of the book series: Transgressions ((TRANS,volume 88))

Abstract

In this chapter I turn the themes ‘power,’ ‘discourse’ and ‘resistance’ to contemplation of the place of qualitative accounts of experience within contemporary managerialist audit cultures and their preoccupation with quantity, number and counting. I specifically critique and resist the power and status of number and quantity as key indicators of what matters and what counts. I do this through play with and on vocabularies of ‘number’ and ‘counting,’ and through laying out an account of my thinking about discourse, narrative, subjectivity and experience. In contesting the privileged status of numerical counting, I elaborate a theoretical, philosophical and epistemological approach to subjectivity and narrated biographical accounts of experience.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Sciences and Psychology University of Western Sydney, Australia

    Peter Bansel

Authors
  1. Peter Bansel
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia

    Mark Vicars

  2. Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia

    Tarquam McKenna

  3. La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

    Julie White

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© 2012 Sense Publishers

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Bansel, P. (2012). Resisting and Re/Counting the Power of Number. In: Vicars, M., McKenna, T., White, J. (eds) Discourse, Power, and Resistance Down Under. Transgressions, vol 88. SensePublishers, Rotterdam. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6209-037-8_1

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