Taxonomies of the self. Emergence and social generalization of calculative practices in the field of self-inspection.

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Uwe Vormbusch
• Subject Area: Sociological Theory
• Term: from 2015 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 270582264

From its very beginnings modern capitalism has been constitutively linked to the field of calculation. The genesis of modern capitalism depended on the innovation of double-entry bookkeeping (Sombart 1987 [1916]; Weber 1920; Vormbusch 2012a). Sociology has studied management tools like measurables and benchmarking as paradigmatic examples of calculation that proliferated in the very heart of the economy of modern societies from the 19th century to the present. Since the 1990s calculative tools - New Public Management or international educational comparisons (PISA) being prominent examples - have gradually expanded into not yet economised fields such as education and health. Recently, we observe a third step of quantification that becomes obvious with the development of still very heterogeneous taxonomies and evaluation practices that invade the everyday world, the human body and the subject. In contrast to the first two stages, not only markets, organizations, and systemic processes are the object of calculative assessments. Today, subjects themselves have already begun to develop new practices of a quantified self-observation: from the measurement of sleep behaviour, physical and sexual activity, the evaluation of changing moods and labour productivity up to the sharing of these data on the Internet, a wide range of calculative self-practices is emerging. The project analyses such practices of self-assessment and self-optimization that have previously been confined to social circles of self-trackers and self-quantifiers and that are now on the move to be socially generalized. The project explores such forms of self-inspection on the basis of the genesis of relevant evaluation systems (taxonomies) and everyday self-tracking practices. At the same time, individual self-tracking - understood as a mundane phenomenon of culture and practice - is related to unfettered performance requirements in modern work as well as the emerging mass markets for self-tracking products. These three aspects are addressed by different sub-projects in order to generate a comprehensive sociological understanding of the taxonomies of the self in contemporary society. The three sub-projects will concentrate on two general problems: First, by focussing on the networked and calculated self we will analyse the cultural significance of calculation beyond organizations and markets. In doing so, the project fills a gap in sociological diagnoses of the present that lack reference to crucial processes of calculation in modern society. Second, the project will shed light on the contradictions of the recent step of quantification: on the one hand, self-inspection implies options for self-knowledge and emancipation and could be considered as a form of enabling accounting. On the other hand, it threatens to subject every aspect of individual life by extending instrumental rationality to hitherto incalculable entities: the body and the self.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants