Beyond the Body Productive: Exploring the Transformative Potential of Self-Tracking

Abstract

Previous studies of self-tracking often focus on themes such as control, surveillance and the production of self-optimising neoliberal subjects. This article extends understanding by exploring the affective capacities of self-tracking in fostering wellbeing and forging meaningful relationships. Drawing upon a Deleuzian conceptual framework and the experiences of a sample of self-tracking individuals in the United Kingdom, we examine how self-tracking practices can encourage the formation of new relationships, habits and capacities that enhance wellbeing in unique and personal ways. Our analysis presents three key themes: tracking towards meaningful relationships, routinising wellbeing and self-tracking through the struggle. Crucially, our findings move beyond the ‘body productive’ exposing how the affective capacities of self-tracking emerge through dynamic interactions between users, devices and wider assemblages, rather than being solely determined by technology. In doing so, we highlight the importance of personal and relational dimensions of wellbeing as they intersect with self-tracking technologies.