This article applies Guy Debord's theory of the spectacle to the
institutional field of contemporary American higher education. Our case study
examines the US News & World Report system of college rankings,
which has come to acquire a powerful role in determining exchange values among
colleges and universities. Based on a document analysis of 12 issues of the
USN, we present three processes by which it accomplishes the construction
of the rankings spectacle: abstraction, valuation and legitimation. First, the
USN abstracts images of colleges and universities in the form of
discrete numbers. Second, these numbers are valued, compared and ranked as
exchangeable commodities. Finally, we examine the discursive strategies employed by
the USN to legitimize its rankings as accurate and useful. As higher
education is a unique social institution associated with the notions of truth,
knowledge, rationality and science, the widespread consumption and influence of the
USN rankings illuminate the degree to which the society of the spectacle
has arrived upon today's American society.
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