Self-Tracking

Btihaj Ajana is Associate Professor and Marie Curie Fellow at Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Denmark. She is also a Senior Lecturer at the department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London. Her academic work is interdisciplinary in nature, spanning areas of digital culture, media praxis, and biopolitics. She is the author of Governing through Biometrics: The Biopolitics of Identity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).

“This is an eye-opening book. Our digital selves are so used to data sharing, often without questioning how this data is used, where it is stored and, in the end, for what purpose. I am not negative towards these advanced technologies, e.g. GPS. But having read this book … makes me think about – not only how our modern societies and self-representations are constructed– but also – how should we apprehend them and to what extent accept them. I recommend this book warmly.” (Anne L.C. Runehov, ESSSAT News & Reviews, Vol. 31 (2), June, 2021)

• Chapter 1. Introduction; Btihaj Ajana.- Chapter 2. Engagement and the Quantified Self: Uneventful relationships with ghostly companions; Paolo Ruffino.- Chapter 3. Apps as companions: How Quantified Self apps become our audience and our companions; Jill Walker Rettberg.- Chapter 4. Human/technology associations in self-tracking practices; Dorthe Brogård Kristensen and Carolin Prigge.- Chapter 5. Social media and self-tracking: Representing the ‘health self’; Rachael Kent.- Chapter 6. Self-tracking as the mobilisation of the social for capital accumulation; Chris Till.- Chapter 7. The quantified workplace: A study in self-tracking, agility and change management; Phoebe Moore, Lukasz Piwek, and Ian Roper.- Chapter 8. Data privacy: Users’ thoughts on Quantified Self personal data; Keith Spiller, Kirstie Ball, Arosha Bandara, Maureen Meadows, Ciaran McCormick, Bashar Nuseibeh and Blaine A. Price.- Chapter 9. Communal self-tracking: Data philanthropy, solidarity and privacy; Bithaj Ajana.