From Ranking Individuals to Ranking Organizations

Rankings are a specifically modern practice of comparing performances. We look at the long-term historical careers of rankings in four fields – the arts, competitive sports, universities and nation-states – before their proliferation in the 1990s. By comparing the different trajectories of rankings in those four fields, we aim to contribute to the understanding of a more general historical trend in modernity: From rankings by and of individuals towards rankings by and of organizations.