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https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.46.2021.1.206-229
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Adjusting Reality: The Contingency Dilemma in the Context of Popularised Practices of Digital Self-Tracking of Health Data
Die Realität anpassen: Das Kontingenzdilemma im Kontext der popularisierten Praktiken der digitalen Selbstrackings von Gesundheitsdaten
[journal article]
Abstract The practice of digital self-tracking of health data addresses inter-related contingencies on the micro and macro level: on the micro level, digital self-tracking can be perceived as facilitation of lifeworld contingencies and the expression of the way contingency is dealt with in (socially) exhaust... view more
The practice of digital self-tracking of health data addresses inter-related contingencies on the micro and macro level: on the micro level, digital self-tracking can be perceived as facilitation of lifeworld contingencies and the expression of the way contingency is dealt with in (socially) exhausted societies. Together, these can be understood as a strategy of the "privatization of contingency." The attempt to reduce the individual’s contingency of action is accompanied by the increase of lifeworld contingency, resulting in a contingency dilemma in contemporary self-tracking which produces (new) dependencies and vulnerabilities with respect to the technology used. Through a multilevel analysis of digital self-tracking and an empirical study on vulnerable self-trackers, a number of those pathological effects of the contingency dilemma are examined using methods from pragmatism and theory of conventions, while highlighting a possible solution to this dilemma.... view less
Keywords
health status; data capture; self-control; data protection; digital media; effects of technology; health behavior; prophylaxis; vulnerability
Classification
Technology Assessment
Medical Sociology
Free Keywords
pragmatism; digital self-tracking; contingency; conventions; prevention; health data; values
Document language
English
Publication Year
2021
Page/Pages
p. 206-229
Journal
Historical Social Research, 46 (2021) 1
Issue topic
Conventions, Health and Society - Convention Theory as an Institutionalist Approach to the Political Economy of Health
ISSN
0172-6404
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed