Personal data contexts, data sense, and self-tracking cycling

by | Jan 8, 2018 | Research Publications

Author(s):

  • Lupton, Deborah
  • Pink, Sarah
  • Labond, Christine Heyes
  • Sumartojo, Shanti

Abstract:

Few studies thus far have focused on how the sensory and embodied aspects of digitized self-tracking are entangled with its technological and spatial dimensions. To address these issues, we draw on the findings of a project that involved the use of digital sensory ethnography to identify the data practices of commuting cyclists in two Australian cities who monitor their rides using digital self-tracking devices. We focus on four key contexts in which our participants collected and interpreted their personal data: (1) affordances (the capacities of the technologies they used and the data thus generated), (2) spaces (the physical environments in which the participants prepared for, undertook, and completed their cycle trips), (3) senses (the embodied sensations involved in cycling, self-tracking, and responses to digital data), and (4) affects (the participants’ emotional responses to and about self-tracking and personal data). As we show, these contexts are intertwined, working together to contribute to people’s personal data collection practices and how they engage in data sense making.

Document:

https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/5925/2258

References:
  1. Choe, E. K., Lee, N. B., Lee, B., Pratt, W., & Kientz, J. A. (2014). Understanding quantified-selfers’ practices in collecting and exploring personal data. In Proceedings of the 32nd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1143–1152). New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery.
  2. Classen, C. (1999). Other ways to wisdom: Learning through the senses across cultures. International Review of Education, 45(3/4), 269–280. doi:10.1023/A:1003894610869
  3. Dennison, L., Morrison, L., Conway, G., & Yardley, L. (2013). Opportunities and challenges for smartphone applications in supporting health behavior change: A qualitative study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 15(4), e86. Retrieved from http://www.jmir.org/2013/4/e86/
  4. Fors, V., Bäckström, Å., & Pink, S. (2013). Multisensory emplaced learning: Resituating situated learning in a moving world. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 20(2), 170–183. doi:10.1080/10749039.2012.719991
  5. Fotopoulou, A., & O’Riordan, K. (2017). Training to self-care: Fitness tracking, biopedagogy and the healthy consumer. Health Sociology Review, 26(1), 54–68. doi:10.1080/14461242.2016.1184582
  6. Frank, M., Walker, J., Attard, J., & Tygel, A. (2016). Data literacy—What is it and how can we make it happen? The Journal of Community Informatics, 12(3). Retrieved from http://www.ci- journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1347
  7. Goodwin, D. (2010). Sensing the way: Embodied dimensions of diagnostic work. In M. Büscher, D. Goodwin, & J. Mesman (Eds.), Ethnographies of diagnostic work: Dimensions of transformative practice (pp. 73–92). London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
  8. Howes, D. (2015). Anthropology of the senses. In J. D. Wright (Ed.), International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (2nd ed., pp. 615–620). Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier.
  9. Howes, D., & Classen, C. (2013). Ways of sensing: Understanding the senses in society. London, UK: Routledge.
  10. Ingold, T. (2000). The perception of the environment: Essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill. London, UK: Routledge.
  11. Jungnickel, K., & Aldred, R. (2013). Cycling’s sensory strategies: How cyclists mediate their exposure to the urban environment. Mobilities, 9(2), 238–255. doi:10.1080/17450101.2013.796772
  12. Larsen, J. (2016). Commuting, exercise and sport: An ethnography of long-distance bike commuting. Social & Cultural Geography. Advance online publication. doi:10.1080/14649365.2016.1249399
  13. Lee, D. J. (2015). Embodied bicycle commuters in a car world. Social & Cultural Geography, 17(3), 412– 422. doi:10.1080/14649365.2015.1077265
  14. Li, I., Dey, A. K., & Forlizzi, J. (2011). Understanding my data, myself: Supporting self-reflection with ubicomp technologies. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing (pp. 405–414). New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery.
  15. Lloyd, M. (2015). On the way to cycle rage: Disputed mobile formations. Mobilities. Advance online publication. doi:10.1080/17450101.2015.1096031
  16. Lomborg, S., & Frandsen, K. (2016). Self-tracking as communication. Information, Communication & Society, 19(7), 1015–1027. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2015.1067710
  17. Lupton, D. (2015a). Digital sociology. London, UK: Routledge.
  18. Lupton, D. (2015b). Fabricated data bodies: Reflections on 3D printed digital body objects in medical and health domains. Social Theory & Health, 13(2), 99–115. doi:10.1057/sth.2015
  19. Lupton, D. (2016a). Digital companion species and eating data: Implications for theorising digital data– human assemblages. Big Data & Society, 3(1). Retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2053951715619947
  20. Lupton, D. (2016b). Foreword: Lively devices, lively data and lively leisure studies. Leisure Studies, 35(6), 709–711. doi:10.1080/02614367.2016.1216582
  21. Lupton, D. (2016c). The quantified self: A sociology of self-tracking. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
  22. McIlvenny, P. (2015). The joy of biking together: Sharing everyday experiences of vélomobility. Mobilities, 10(1), 55–82. doi:10.1080/17450101.2013.844950
  23. Nafus, D. (2014). Stuck data, dead data, and disloyal data: The stops and starts in making numbers into social practices. Distinktion, 15(2), 208–222. doi:10.1080/1600910X.2014.920266
  24. Nafus, D., & Sherman, J. (2014). This one does not go up to 11: The quantified self movement as an alternative big data practice. International Journal of Communication, 8. Retrieved from http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/2170
  25. Oh, J., & Lee, U. (2015, January). Exploring UX issues in quantified self technologies. Paper presented at the Eighth International Conference on Mobile Computing and Ubiquitous Networking, Hakodate, Japan.
  26. Pantzar, M., Ruckenstein, M., & Mustonen, V. (2017). Social rhythms of the heart. Health Sociology Review, 26(1), 22–37. doi:10.1080/14461242.2016.1184580
  27. Pink, S. (2014). Digital–visual–sensory-design anthropology: Ethnography, imagination and intervention. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 13(4), 412–427. doi:10.1177/1474022214542353
  28. Pink, S. (2015a). Approaching media through the senses: Between experience and representation. Media International Australia, 154, 5–14. doi:10.1177/1329878X1515400103
  29. Pink, S. (2015b). Doing sensory ethnography (2nd ed.). London, UK: SAGE Publications.
  30. Pink, S., Horst, H., Postill, J., Hjorth, L., Lewis, T., & Tacchi, J. (2016). Digital ethnography: Principles and practice. London, UK: SAGE Publications.
  31. Pink, S., Sinanan, J., Hjorth, L., & Horst, H. (2015). Tactile digital ethnography: Researching mobile media through the hand. Mobile Media & Communication, 4(2), 237–251. doi:10.1177/2050157915619958
  32. Pink, S., Sumartojo, S., Lupton, D., & LaBond, C. H. (2017). Mundane data: The routines, contingencies and accomplishments of digital living. Big Data & Society, 4(1). Retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2053951717700924
  33. Pybus, J., Coté, M., & Blanke, T. (2015). Hacking the social life of big data. Big Data & Society, 2(2). Retrieved from http://bds.sagepub.com/content/2/2/2053951715616649.abstract
  34. Ruckenstein, M. (2014). Visualized and interacted life: Personal analytics and engagements with data doubles. Societies, 4(1), 68–84. doi:10.3390/soc4010068
  35. Smith, G. J. D., & Vonthethoff, B. (2017). Health by numbers? Exploring the practice and experience of datafied health. Health Sociology Review, 26(1), 6–21. doi:10.1080/14461242.2016.1196600
  36. Sumartojo, S., Pink, S., Lupton, D., & LaBond, C. H. (2016). The affective intensities of datafied space. Emotion, Space and Society, 21, 33–40. doi:10.1016/j.emospa.2016.10.004
  37. Whatmore, S. (2006). Materialist returns: Practising cultural geography in and for a more-than-human world. Cultural Geographies, 13(4), 600–609. doi:10.1191/1474474006cgj377oa
  38. Wolff, A., Gooch, D., Montaner, J. J. C., Rashid, U., & Kortuem, G. (2016). Creating an understanding of data literacy for a data-driven society. The Journal of Community Informatics, 12(3). Retrieved from http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1286