Precarious accounts: Money, sex and power in the industrial revolution

Aim

This project aims to provide a historical perspective on contemporary debates around the uses of self-tracking technologies. The project expects to generate new knowledge on how practices for quantifying the self relate to significant social and economic change, from the industrial revolution through to measuring the systems of big data that now shape the world.

Methods

This project uses a case study of Gilbert Innes, a banker known for his sexual exploitation of women and obsessive bookkeeping.

Significance

The expected outcome is a history of how accounting shaped identity and morality in the nineteenth century. Through improving our understanding of how quantification practices shape society, this research supports their effective use today.

Funding Body

Australian Research Council (Project ID: DP190100626)

Funding Budget

$157,952

Project start date

January 2019

Expected completion date

December 2021