ABSTRACT
The idea that self-tracking should be viewed and discussed in broader terms than suggested through a quantifying research agenda is well established both inside and outside academia. Approaching self-tracking as a practice and as happening within an experiential world requires an exploration of how data and processes of datafication are imagined. For policy-makers there are moreover other imaginaries, where self-tracking technologies might be associated with forms as diverse as those of societal governance and regulation or of public health. In the growing field of disciplinary approaches to self-tracking, critical debates have emerged that are typical of disciplinary interfaces. Lupton makes a sociological critique of human–computer interaction research, which has tended to be dominated by cognitive or behavioural psychology. In favour of the sociological focus on the social, she argues for highlighting the ‘social, cultural and political dimensions’ of ‘self-tracking cultures’.
