ABSTRACT
Quantification and commensuration, that is the transformation of disparate qualities into common metrics, are key processes shaping economic activity in capitalism. To understand the everyday practice of quantification we study how impact is operationalized and incorporated into the investment process. To answer these questions, we conducted an ethnographic study based on a three-month participant observation in a pioneer impact investing fund in the UK. We find that, contrary to the commonly held assumption that quantification decontextualizes objects, numbers are used to contextualize qualitative matters and that these numbers actually come to represent qualities. Impact is integrated into investment decision-making through maintaining a separate organizational unit, whose mission is to encourage dialogue on impact and through the iterative use of quantitative and qualitative tools, which are part of both short- and long-term considerations.
