The Quantified Self

1. Auflage März 2016
240 Seiten, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Kurzbeschreibung
With the advent of digital devices and software, self-tracking practices have gained new adherents and have spread into a wide array of social domains. The Quantified Self movement has emerged to promote 'self-knowledge through numbers'.
In this groundbreaking book Deborah Lupton critically analyses the social, cultural and political dimensions of contemporary self-tracking and identifies the concepts of selfhood and human embodiment and the value of the data that underpin them.
The book incorporates discussion of the consolations and frustrations of self-tracking, as well as about the proliferating ways in which people's personal data are now used beyond their private rationales. Lupton outlines how the information that is generated through self-tracking is taken up and repurposed for commercial, governmental, managerial and research purposes. In the relationship between personal data practices and big data politics, the implications of self-tracking are becoming ever more crucial.
With the advent of digital devices and software, self-tracking practices have gained new adherents and have spread into a wide array of social domains. The Quantified Self movement has emerged to promote 'self-knowledge through numbers'.
In this groundbreaking book Deborah Lupton critically analyses the social, cultural and political dimensions of contemporary self-tracking and identifies the concepts of selfhood and human embodiment and the value of the data that underpin them.
The book incorporates discussion of the consolations and frustrations of self-tracking, as well as about the proliferating ways in which people's personal data are now used beyond their private rationales. Lupton outlines how the information that is generated through self-tracking is taken up and repurposed for commercial, governmental, managerial and research purposes. In the relationship between personal data practices and big data politics, the implications of self-tracking are becoming ever more crucial.
Introduction
1 'Know Thyself': Self-tracking Practices and Technologies
2 'New Hybrid Beings': Theoretical Perspectives
3 'An Optimal Human Being': the Body and Self in Self-Tracking Cultures
4 'You are Your Data': Personal Data Meanings, Practices and Materialisations
5 'Data's Capacity for Betrayal': Personal Data Politics
Conclusion
References
Index
Minna Ruckenstein, University of Helsinki
"Lupton's book is a fascinating read and I highly recommend it to researchers and practitioners who wish to gain a comprehensive account of self-tracking practices. Along with the commonly discussed topics of motivation and data representations, Lupton sheds light onto less explored topics, such as data-surveillance, while offering various theoretical foundations to support her arguments. Her writing is both visionary and provocative, and the book is a must read for researchers and practitioners of the Quantified Self movement."
Florian 'Floyd' Mueller, Director, Exertion Games Lab, RMIT University