Doing the self: an ethnographic analysis of the quantified self
<p>'Wearables' and 'self-quantifying technologies' are becoming ever more popular and normalised in society as a means of 'knowing' the self. How are these technologies implicated in this endeavour? Using insights from a four year multi-sited ethnography of the &#...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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2017
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| _version_ | 1826316266728587264 |
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| author | Dudhwala, F |
| author2 | Woolgar, S |
| author_facet | Woolgar, S Dudhwala, F |
| author_sort | Dudhwala, F |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>'Wearables' and 'self-quantifying technologies' are becoming ever more popular and normalised in society as a means of 'knowing' the self. How are these technologies implicated in this endeavour? Using insights from a four year multi-sited ethnography of the 'Quantified Self', I explore how the self is 'done' in the context of using technologies that purport to quantify the self in some way. Drawing on Science and Technology Studies (STS) sensibilities, I conduct a four- pronged investigation into 'self-making' by drawing upon, and expanding, existing theories of agency and performativity, number, data-visualisation, and enactment.</p> <p>I find that self-quantifying technologies are productive in the doing of the self and are implicated in the process of making boundaries around that which comes to be known as the 'self' in a particular moment. The numbers and visualisations that result from practices of self-quantification enable a new way of 'seeing' the self, and provide a way of communicating this self with others. The self is thus not a pre-existing entity that simply requires these technologies as a means to 'know' it. Rather, the self is constantly being done with these technologies and within the surrounding practices of self-quantification.</p> <p>In order to highlight the different parts of this process, I proffer the term 'entractment'. This term explains how these different elements come together to culminate in the production of a momentarily constant self in a particular context. It is a way of simultaneously encapsulating the processes of intra-action, extra-action and enactment with/in a community. In sum, it captures the conclusion that, in the context of self-quantification, we must understand the self as a collective enactment, achieved, at least in part, through the use of self-quantifying technologies that produce numerical data which facilitate visualisations that are imperative to the doing of the self.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T20:42:23Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:34b6097e-3568-4d81-ae79-7d65d2875177 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-09T03:41:46Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:34b6097e-3568-4d81-ae79-7d65d28751772024-12-07T12:54:52ZDoing the self: an ethnographic analysis of the quantified selfThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:34b6097e-3568-4d81-ae79-7d65d2875177Science and Technology StudiesManagement StudiesEnglishORA Deposit2017Dudhwala, FWoolgar, SLezaun, J<p>'Wearables' and 'self-quantifying technologies' are becoming ever more popular and normalised in society as a means of 'knowing' the self. How are these technologies implicated in this endeavour? Using insights from a four year multi-sited ethnography of the 'Quantified Self', I explore how the self is 'done' in the context of using technologies that purport to quantify the self in some way. Drawing on Science and Technology Studies (STS) sensibilities, I conduct a four- pronged investigation into 'self-making' by drawing upon, and expanding, existing theories of agency and performativity, number, data-visualisation, and enactment.</p> <p>I find that self-quantifying technologies are productive in the doing of the self and are implicated in the process of making boundaries around that which comes to be known as the 'self' in a particular moment. The numbers and visualisations that result from practices of self-quantification enable a new way of 'seeing' the self, and provide a way of communicating this self with others. The self is thus not a pre-existing entity that simply requires these technologies as a means to 'know' it. Rather, the self is constantly being done with these technologies and within the surrounding practices of self-quantification.</p> <p>In order to highlight the different parts of this process, I proffer the term 'entractment'. This term explains how these different elements come together to culminate in the production of a momentarily constant self in a particular context. It is a way of simultaneously encapsulating the processes of intra-action, extra-action and enactment with/in a community. In sum, it captures the conclusion that, in the context of self-quantification, we must understand the self as a collective enactment, achieved, at least in part, through the use of self-quantifying technologies that produce numerical data which facilitate visualisations that are imperative to the doing of the self.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Science and Technology Studies Management Studies Dudhwala, F Doing the self: an ethnographic analysis of the quantified self |
| title | Doing the self: an ethnographic analysis of the quantified self |
| title_full | Doing the self: an ethnographic analysis of the quantified self |
| title_fullStr | Doing the self: an ethnographic analysis of the quantified self |
| title_full_unstemmed | Doing the self: an ethnographic analysis of the quantified self |
| title_short | Doing the self: an ethnographic analysis of the quantified self |
| title_sort | doing the self an ethnographic analysis of the quantified self |
| topic | Science and Technology Studies Management Studies |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT dudhwalaf doingtheselfanethnographicanalysisofthequantifiedself |