ABSTRACT
This chapter claims that we witness a significant shift in the way we live our lives and manage our individual and collective affairs in contemporary society. The constant pressure for innovation, growth and acceleration that results from society’s mode of dynamic stabilisation is almost “naturally” met by individuals and organisations with attempts to optimise their efficiency. But beyond a certain level, further improvement requires a systematic approach. This means that processes and conditions need to be disassembled into their individual parts, and then checked and improved one by one. The introduction of digital technologies thus has enabled and motivated a new form of “Taylorisation” of everyday life, which we can call parametric optimisation. It means that more and more aspects can be singled out, can then be “checked” for adequacy and efficiency and manipulated individually. Hence, parametric optimisation can be defined as the process in which (a) more and more aspects are digitally quantified and measured, (b) are then compared with others’ as well as past performances and (c) are manipulated or “optimised”. The contribution explores how parametric optimisation “colonises” more and more aspects of our individual, social and organisational lives and points out its effects and consequences.
