Abstract
From a pragmatist as well as from a praxeological perspective, the topic here is what kinds of body representations emerge from the practices of self-measurement and how they themselves in turn as entities become part of health or nutrition practices. In particular, it asks what becomes of the always only partially reconstructed data bodies of self-measurement practices, what they make visible, what do they ‘shadow’, through which filters are they thinned out, condensed or distorted, and for which connection practices these representations function as references. In doing so, the text draws on the results of two qualitative-empirical studies in which both practices and discourses of self-measurement and data-sharing were investigated.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
This is the current advertising slogan of a manufacturer of fitness trackers.
- 2.
Heintz speaks of the fact that “numbers, images and language have a communicative effect of their own and quantification is a particularly efficient form of establishing acceptance“; she calls this “numerical difference“(2010, p. 162).
- 3.
Our study of practices and discourses of sharing digital self-measurement data (Leckert et al. 2016) suggests that, contrary to what advertising suggests, this is not yet very common.
- 4.
Adelbert von Chamisso: Peter Schlemihl’s wundersame Geschichte (1813) (Peter Schlehmihls’s Wondrous Tale).
References
Balka, E., & Star, S. L. (2015). Mapping the Body across Diverse Information Systems: ShadowBodies and how They Make Us Human. In G. C. Bowker, S. Timmermans, A. E. Clarke, & E. Balka (Eds.), Boundary Objects and Beyond: Working with Susan Leigh Star (pp. 417–434). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Biagioli, M. (Ed.). (1999). The Science Studies Reader. London: Routledge.
Bourdieu, P. (1977): Outline of a theory of practice. Cambirdge: Cambridge UP
Bröckling, U. (2015): The Entreprenlurial Self Fabrication of a new Type of Subject. London: Sage.
Dewey, J. (1938). Logic, the Theory of Inquiry. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Duttweiler, S. (2016). Körperbilder und Zahlenkörper. Zur Verschränkung von Medien und Selbsttechnologien in Fitness-Apps. In S. Duttweiler, R. Gugutzer, J. H. Passoth, & J. Strübing (Eds.), Leben nach Zahlen. Self-Tracking als Optimierungsprojekt? (pp. 221–251). Bielefeld: transcript. (Body Images and Number Bodies: On the Entanglement of Media and Self-Technologies in Fitness Apps)
Duttweiler, S., Gugutzer, R., Passoth, J. H., & Strübing, J. (Eds.). (2016): Leben nach Zahlen. Self-Tracking als Optimierungsprojekt? Bielefeld: transcript (Digitale Gesellschaft Bd. 10). (Living by Numbers. Self-Tracking as an Optimization Project?)
Duttweiler, S., & Passoth, J. H. (2016). Self-Tracking als Optimierungsprojekt?. In S. Duttweiler, R. Gugutzer, J. H. Passoth, & J. Strübing (Eds.), Leben nach Zahlen. Self-Tracking als Optimierungsprojekt? (pp. 9–42). Bielefeld: transcript. (Self-Tracking as a Optimization Project?)
Espeland, W. N., & Stevens, M. L. (1998). Commensuration as a Social Process. Annual Review of Sociology, 24, pp. 313–343.
Espeland, W. N., & Stevens, M. L. (2008). A Sociology of Quantification. European Journal of Sociology, 49, pp. 401–436.
Heintz, B. (2010). Numerische Differenz. Überlegungen zu einer Soziologie des (quantitativen) Vergleichs. Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 39, pp. 162–181. (Numerical Differfence. About a Sociologie of (quntitative) Comparison)
Hirschauer, S. (2004). Praktiken und ihre Körper. Über materielle Partizipanden des Tuns. In K. H. Hörning, & J. Reuter (Hrsg.), Doing Culture. Neue Positionen zum Verhältnis von Kultur und sozialer Praxis (pp. 73–91). Bielefeld: transcript. (Practices and their Bodies. On material Participant of Doings)
Leckert, M., Panzitta, S., Atanisev, K., Dawgiert, L., Dieterich, M., Lauterwasser, T., Leger, M., Orlowski, A., Steidle, S., & Tiede, M. (2016). Vermessen und Teilen. Praktiken und Diskurse des Teilens digitaler Selbstvermessungsdaten. Project Report, Tübingen. (Messearing and Sharing. Practices and Discourses of Sharing Self-Measurment Data)
Leger, M., Panzitta, S., & Tiede, M., 2018: Ich teile. also bin ich. Datenteilen als soziale Praktik. In Daniel Houben/Bianca Prietl (Hrsg.). Datengesellschaft. Einsichten in die Datafizierung des Sozialen. (pp. 35–59). Bielefeld: transcript. (I share, thus I am. Data-sharing as a social practice)
Mead, G. H. (1938). The Philosophy of the Act. Edited and with an introduction by Charles W. Morris. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (Works of George Herbert Mead, Vol. 3).
Mol, A. (2003). The Body Multiple. Ontology in Medical Practice. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Mol, A., & Law, J. (2004). Embodied Action, Enacted Bodies: the Example of Hypoglycaemia. Body & Society, 10, pp. 43–62.
Passoth, J. H., & Wehner, J. (2016). Sportstudios. Zur institutionalisierten Verdatung und Analyse moderner Körper. In S. Duttweiler, R. Gugutzer, J. H. Passoth, & J. Strübing (Hrsg.), Leben nach Zahlen. Self-Tracking als Optimierungsprojekt? (pp. 253–269). Bielefeld: transcript. (Sports Studios. On the institutionalized Datafication and Analysis of modern Bodies)
Rammert, W. (Hrsg.). (1998). Technik und Sozialtheorie. Frankfurt a. M.: Campus (Technology and Social Theory)
Rammert, W., & Schulz-Schaeffer, I. (2002). Technik und Handeln. Wenn soziales Handeln sich auf menschliches Verhalten und technische Abläufe verteilt. In W. Rammert & I. Schulz-Schaeffer (Hrsg.), Können Maschinen handeln? Soziologische Beiträge zum Verhältnis von Mensch und Technik (pp. 9–64). Frankfurt a. M.: Campus. (Technology and Action. When social Action is distributed among Human Behavior and Technical Processing)
Reichert, R. (2016). Social Surveillance. Praktiken der digitalen Selbstvermessung in mobilen Anwendungskulturen, In S. Duttweiler, R. Gugutzer, J. H. Passoth, & J. Strübing (Hrsg.), Leben nach Zahlen. Self-Tracking als Optimierungsprojekt? (pp. 185–200). Bielefeld: transcript. (Social Surveillance. Practices of digital Self-Meseurement in Cultures of Mobile Application)
Schatzki, T. R. (1996). Social Practices. A Wittgensteinian Approach to Human Activity and the Social. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Selke, S. (2014). Lifelogging: Wie die digitale Selbstvermessung unsere Gesellschaft verändert. Berlin: Econ. (Lifelogging: How digital Self-Measurement changes our Society)
Staiger, L., Kasper, B., Urbanczyk, M., Flischikowski, C., Ehlert, P., Gerloch, T., Hammerl, A., Klaiber, M., Klose, M., Schleifer, T., Wurst, M., (2015). Das vermessene Selbst. Praktiken und Diskurse digitaler Selbstvermessung. Tübingen: Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen. (The Measured Self. Practices and Discourses of Digital Self-Measurement)
Strauss, A. L., Fagerhaugh, S., Suczek, B., & Wiener, C (1985). Social Organization of Medical Work. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Strübing, J. (2017): Where is the Meat/d? Pragmatismus und Praxistheorien als reziprokes Ergänzungsverhältnis. In H. Dietz, F. Nungesser & A. Pettenkofer (Hrsg.), Pragmatismus und Theorien sozialer Praktiken. Vom Nutzen einer Theoriedifferenz. (pp. 41–75) Frankfurt a. M.: Campus. (Where ist the Meat/d? Pragmatism and Practice Theories as a relation of reciporcal supplementation)
Voß, G. G., & Pongratz, H. J. (1998). Der Arbeitskraftunternehmer. Eine neue Grundform der Ware Arbeitskraft? Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, 50, pp. 131–158. (The Labor Power Entrepreneur. A new Basic Form of Commodity)
Wiedemann, L. (2016): “Vom Pieksen zum Scannen, vom Wert zu den Daten.” Digitlae Selbstvermessung im Kontext Diabetes, In S. Duttweiler, R. Gugutzer, J. H. Passoth, & J. Strübing (Hrsg.), Leben nach Zahlen. Self-Tracking als Optimierungsprojekt? (pp. 293–324). Bielefeld: transcript. (From Pricking to Scanning, from Digit to Data: Digital Self-Measurement in the Context of Diabetis).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Strübing, J. (2023). Surveying? Data Shadows and Shadow Bodies of Self-Measurement. In: Schubert, C., Schulz-Schaeffer, I. (eds) Berlin Keys to the Sociology of Technology. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-41683-6_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-41683-6_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer VS, Wiesbaden
Print ISBN: 978-3-658-41682-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-658-41683-6
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)