Quantified Selves and Statistical Bodies

Research output: Books and anthologiesSpecial Journal issueResearch

Authors

  • Pablo Abend (Editor)
  • Mathias Fuchs (Editor)
  • Ramón Reichert (Editor)
  • Annika Richterich (Editor)
  • Karin Wenz (Editor)
Contemporary Quantified Self enthusiasts are tempted by the possibilities of the surveyed body. Thus, Joggers can keep track of their accomplishments, snorers can monitor their sleep, and chronically ill patients can re-adjust their medication. “Self-knowledge through numbers” became the mantra of the emerging communities of self-trackers (Lupton 2014), and Quantified Self, lifelogging, and personal informatics are the terms applied to describe the use of digital technology to track physical activity, quantify bodily processes, and monitor the own conduct of life. While pre-digital precursors to the Quantified Self, e.g. the British “mass observation” movement of the 1930s, or what has been described as “direct observations” by Schütz (1964) a.o., have anticipated what now has become a mass phenomenon, critical historical analysis will have to point out similarities and differences between new forms of digitally enhanced practices and their pre-digital precursors. The proclaimed aim has been and remains body management and control through monitoring and feedback with the ambition to transform the body and its activities into numeric representations that can be stored, addressed, visualized, monitored, processed, transmitted, and evaluated in order to deduce knowledge about the body.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationBielefeld
Publishertranscript Verlag
Volume2
Edition1
Number of pages196
ISBN (print)978-3-8376-3210-1
ISBN (electronic)978-3-8394-3210-5
Publication statusPublished - 04.04.2016

Publication series

NameDigital Culture and Society
Publishertranscript
No.1
Volume2

    Research areas

  • Cultural studies - Quantified Self, Statistical Bodies, Affective Control, Affect Technologies
  • Digital media - Surveillance Technologies, Life Trackers, Apple Watch, nike+

Recently viewed

Researchers

  1. Detlev Leutner

Publications

  1. Industrial policy in Europe - Theoretical perspectives and practical proposals.
  2. World in Transition: Sustainability Perspectives for Higher Education
  3. Nachhaltigkeit erzählen
  4. The opportunity development process of nascent entrepreneurs
  5. Wisdom or knowledge?, science, theology and cultural dynamics, editors, Hubert Meisinger, Willem B. Drees, and Zbigniew Liana
  6. The Cabinet
  7. § 15
  8. Determination of pesticide fluxes in beech forests
  9. Understanding EU-NATO Cooperation
  10. Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports
  11. Technische Reproduzierbarkeit
  12. Debt for Brands
  13. Der Zentrale Runde Tisch der DDR: Wortprotokoll und Dokumente
  14. Grenzen von „Serious Games for Health“
  15. Intra-industry Adjustment to Import Competition
  16. Widerstand
  17. Lehrerqualität zwischen Kompetenz und Ethos
  18. The New European Public Country-by-Country-Reporting Requirement
  19. Losses and gains in translation
  20. De Publieksbijdrage
  21. Medienerziehung in Kindertagesstätten
  22. Anthropologie der Praxis
  23. Emerging Contaminants versus Micro-pollutants
  24. On Gender Statistics in the Art Field and Leading Positions in the International Sphere
  25. Introduction to the special issue:
  26. Analogue Nostalgia: Examining Critiques of Social Media
  27. Becoming Intimately Mobile
  28. Mit Hartz IV zum Aufbruch ins Erwerbsleben?
  29. A qualitative analysis of virtual patient descriptions in healthcare education based on a systematic literature review
  30. Liability rule failures? Evidence from german court decisions.
  31. Evaluating one-shot tournament predictions
  32. Environmental Management Accounting (EMA) as a Support for Cleaner Production