Self-Tracking, Human Agency and the Good Life

Workshop co-organized by Anders Albrechtslund, 2022-2023 Paris IAS Fellow, holder of the "Major Changes" Chair (IEA- Sorbonne University), and Olivier Aïm, Sorbonne University.

Workshop closed to the public.

The workshop investigates types of surveillance which are predominantly practiced via social media platforms where individuals engage in social exchanges and self-representation, but also through the increasingly popular use of self-tracking apps and devices which are used as a way to scrutinize and present oneself in the language of data. While individuals use these technologies to express themselves in different ways and contexts, they are also feeding data to commercial infrastructures that, in turn, thrive on the circulation and connection of personal information. These data flows are controlled and mediated by tech companies, transforming personal, sometimes intimate information to be commodified and used for business interests. As such, this is a form of surveillance with many different purposes and functions, entailing issues concerning agency, control, and data ownership.
At the same time, the design of these devices and platforms represents a vision of “the good life” which is associated with self-care and self-optimization, and facilitated by digital and datafied means.
The workshop invites researchers and consumer electronic developers to experiment with and discuss techniques of algorithmic control as well as living with these data-intensive surveillance systems.

Keynote speaker: Stine Lomborg, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen.

Participants:
Anders Albrechtslund
Olivier Aïm
Manuel Zacklad
Matheus Ferarri
Laurence Allard
Yuwen Zhang