Author(s):
Rania Magdi Fawzy
Abstract:
The aim of this study is to surface pragmatic forces and the semiotically constructed self-governed persona in the self-tracking context. In so doing, the article adopts a pragma-semiotic approach to investigate the self-tracking app “Habiticia” as an example of the construction of new regimes of algorithmic self-governance. The adopted approach benefits from intersecting pragmatics and Greimassian semiotics as proposed by Sbisá, Sbisá and Fabbri and Cooren. The article deploys Foucault’s notion of “self-governance” to frame Habiticia self-tracking activities through the motifs of the optimization of the self, self-regulation and subjectivation. It concludes that a semio-pragmatic model can make a significant contribution to the notions of the quantified self and digital surveillance. The study contributes to the research on the quantified self-movement, self-tracking apps and governance through developing a dialog with linguistic pragmatics.