Becoming a diagnostic agent: A collated ethnography of digital-sensory work in caregiving intra-actions

Maslen, Sarah; Harris, Anna

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113927

Cited by 5 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Hester has thus performed a type of ‘digital‐sensory work’ (Maslen & Harris, 2021 ), whereby her cycle visualisation as well as sensory awareness help her register and interpret signs and symptoms with regard to her wellbeing. She has learnt to identify and become aware of bodily stress reactions by drawing connections between her cycle pattern, possible stressors and how well she feels.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, body and app work together to become a ‘more‐than‐human sensorium’ (Lupton & Maslen, 2018 ) to register subtle changes in their body. The heightened awareness produced by this ‘digital‐sensory work’ (Maslen & Harris, 2021 ) is not so much a form of knowledge or expertise, but rather an embodied skill : to feel the body’s reproductive physiology. In cultivating this skill, the body becomes an instrument of knowing alongside technical devices used.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With this, my analysis builds on existing work on digital sensory work in health (Maslen, 2017 , 2021 ; Maslen & Harris, 2021 ). In health‐related digital sensory work, devices and bodies become intimately entangled in the process of sensing and diagnosing (with) the body.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By intimately monitoring it, users learn to articulate not only how their reproductive body feels and acts, but they also sense and understand their body as it is situated, related to and dependent on other elements, such as food, stressful situations or sleep. Rather than ‘health by numbers’ (Smith & Vonthethoff, 2016 ) or assessing health through digital sensory diagnosis (Maslen, 2017 , 2021 ; Maslen & Harris, 2021 ), users enact a form of situated health , whereby ‘external influences’ such as certain foods and stressors are identified as potentially healthy or unhealthy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This scholarship focuses on training kits and tools (comprising words, drawings, odour kits, foods, objects and digital devices) that help cultivate sensory attention and awareness. Through the use of these kits, bodies can get sensitised, ‘learn to be affected’ (Latour, 2004 , p. 207) and acquire ‘(digital) sensory knowing’ (Harris, 2020 , p. 18; Maslen & Harris, 2021 , p. 2).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Knowing (with) the body: Sensory knowing in contraceptive self‐tracking

Algera

2022

Sociology Health & Illness

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Scholars have criticised reproductive self-tracking software applications (apps) for reducing embodied experiences to objective quantifications and leading to user self-alienation. Building on scholarly work that underscores the sensory and affective dimension of self-tracking, this ethnographic study explores how users of contraceptive self-tracking apps come to know their bodies during their everyday tracking practices. By relating tracking data to embodied experiences and relating their experiences back to the data, users produce knowledge of their own lived hormonal physiology. Users learn to articulate how their body feels and acts, foregrounding their body as an instrument of knowing alongside technical devices used. Users also articulate how their body is affected by everyday factors such as personal behaviours, diet, sleep and stress, thereby enacting what I call situated health. By foregrounding people's sensory and affective engagements with their data and their bodies through self-tracking, this study contributes to understanding how reproductive self-tracking may be meaningful to users as well as encourages a move beyond the hierarchical opposition between 'objective' numerical data and embodied, lived experiences.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Knowing (with) the body: Sensory knowing in contraceptive self‐tracking

Algera

2022

Sociology Health & Illness

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When chronicity meets cyclicity: The cultivation of embodied knowledge and selfhood by cis-gender women with cystic fibrosis

Sufian,

Mueller,

Langfelder-Schwind

et al. 2024

SSM - Qualitative Research in Health

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Reconciling healthism and techno‐solutionism: An observational study of a digital mental health trial

Berners-Lee

2023

Sociology Health & Illness

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In a growing trend in digital psychiatry, algorithmic systems are used to determine correlations between data that is collected using wearable devices and self‐reports of mood. They then offer recommendations for behaviour modification for improved mood. The present study consists of observations of the development of one of these systems. Descriptions of the trial emphasise the powerful role of the intrinsically motivated, responsible participant on one hand and the empowering machine learning (ML)‐based technology on the other. This conceptualisation is shown to extend the neoliberal paradox of a freedom that, to be maintained, must be continually adjusted through discipline. Because of the paradoxical nature of this formulation, laboratory members disagree about the balance of agency between the objective machine learning system and the empowered participant. The guides who help participants interpret ML outputs and implement system recommendations are ascribed a replaceable role in formal accounts. Observations of this guidance practice make clear not only the important role played by guides but also how their work is relegated to the technological side of the broader formulation of the trial and further how this conceptualisation affects the way they conduct their work.

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Becoming a diagnostic agent: A collated ethnography of digital-sensory work in caregiving intra-actions

Cited by 5 publications

References 46 publications

Knowing (with) the body: Sensory knowing in contraceptive self‐tracking

Knowing (with) the body: Sensory knowing in contraceptive self‐tracking

When chronicity meets cyclicity: The cultivation of embodied knowledge and selfhood by cis-gender women with cystic fibrosis

Reconciling healthism and techno‐solutionism: An observational study of a digital mental health trial

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