Engines of Anxiety

About this book

"Students and the public routinely consult various published college rankings to assess the quality of colleges and universities and easily compare different schools. In Engines of Anxiety, sociologists Wendy Espeland and Michael Sauder delve deep into the mechanisms of law school rankings, which have become a top priority within legal education. Based on a wealth of observational data and over two hundred in-depth interviews with law students, university deans, and other administrators, they show how the scramble for high rankings has affected the missions and practices of many law schools and how the drive to increase a school's rankings has negative consequences for students, educators, and administrators. Engines of Anxiety has implications for all educational programs that are quantified in similar ways"--Unedited summary from book cover.