Quantification and commensuration have been major areas of inquiry in STS in recent years (Mennicken & Espeland 2019). STS work has highlighted the challenges of measuring the attributes or performance of individuals and of ensuring these measurements are comparable. While regulation and control through tracking has long been a feature of low-wage work, these new forms of quantification and commensuration are increasingly prevalent in high-status professional groups like physicians and nurses. Such forms of quantification and commensuration are often aimed at increasing productivity, agility, and well-being among professionals and occupational workers (Lupton, 2016; Till, 2019). They can also be used to assess, quantify and compare knowledge, skills, personal attributes, and emotional states (Stark, 2020), with the hope that developing measurements and quantifications will offer an alternative to traditional forms of evaluation, and that this might reduce bias in skill assessments.
In this panel we seek to explore how quantification and commensuration are remaking professional groups and identities, and how new quantification technologies may play a role in professionalizing projects. These technologies may take the shape of formal evaluations and tests, supportive tools for formative development, tracking apps for wellness, and other profession- or workplace-sponsored programs that promote the collection, quantification, and commensuration of working professionals’ activity. We also welcome proposals focusing on assessment in practice, the development of assessments and measures, the history of assessment approaches, and other related topics. 
Sources Cited
Lupton, Deborah. 2016. The Quantified Self. Malden, MA: Polity Press.
Mennicken, A. & W.N. Espeland (2019). What’s New with Numbers? Sociological Approaches to the Study of Quantification. Annual Review of Sociology, 45:223-245.
Stark, Luke. 2020. “The emotive politics of digital mood tracking.” New Media & Society, 22(11),
2039-2057.
Till, Christopher. 2019. “Creating ‘Automatic Subjects’: Corporate Wellness and Self-Tracking.”
Health 23(4):418–435.