Resonating Self-tracking Practices? Empirical Insights into Theoretical Reflections on a ‘Sociology of Resonance’

Abstract

Nowadays there are many digital tools and mediatised ways for self-tracking for the sake of gaining self-knowledge through numbers. In his recent book ‘Resonance’, Hartmut Rosa suggests that artefacts can indeed resonate with people (Rosa, 2016, p. 381ff.) by affecting emotion, intrinsic interests and self-efficacy expectations. In contrast, Rosa characterises self-tracking as an attempt to measure the resource potential of individuals, confounding it with the good life itself (Rosa, 2016, p. 47). That is why we want to challenge Rosa’s concept of a good life and enhance the assertion of individual and social practices that can generate resonance.

With several case studies, we want to study empirically how people ‘resonate’ (or not) with and in self-tracking practices and to which degree Rosa’s hypothesis is verifiable or not. By empirically contrasting the quantifying practices and metric culture of self-tracking with the recently emerging sociological field of ‘world relationships’ and ‘resonance’, new insights on the embedding of the quantified with the qualified self will be gained.

Citation

Kappler, K.E., Krzeminska, A. and Noji, E. (2018), "Resonating Self-tracking Practices? Empirical Insights into Theoretical Reflections on a ‘Sociology of Resonance’", Ajana, B. (Ed.) Metric Culture, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 77-95. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78743-289-520181005