Abstract

The order of inclusion in modern society regulates an imperative without any exception. Therefore it is based on a reverse complementarity: It is determined by an asymmetry of expectations dominated by the role of the layperson, the client, the customer, or the audience, but not by the role of the professional actor. These laypersons, clients, customers, or audiences are addressed as generalized counterparts without any particular self-description or self-understanding; on their side of the asymmetry, there is no clear identity. Thus, quantification spreads, which is assumed to be the only medium to describe this indescribable, especially since it is the classic mode of describing the incomprehensible, poorly integrated, foreign, nameless and worthless. The article first examines the sociological traces of this assumption. It then considers lists, ratings, and rankings as diagrammatic forms of quantified complementarity, following the idea that visualization might be a mode of inclusion in quantified contexts. Quantification manages and organizes inclusion without presupposed group affiliations ormemberships and yet serves as resource of affirmation in the context of contingent social relations.