Caring for more-than-human metabolic health: Self-tracking technologies as tools of calculation and communication in obesity and type 1 diabetes care
This article draws on the findings of ongoing ethnographic research to examine the use of self-tracking devices and the embodiment of numerical data in type 1 diabetes (T1D) and obesity (self)care. We engage the notion of industrial and post-industrial metabolism as proposed by Hannah Landecker (201...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Italian |
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Dipartimento Culture e Società - Università di Palermo
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Archivio Antropologico Mediterraneo |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/aam/10112 |
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| author | Varvara Borisova Sabina Vassileva |
| author_facet | Varvara Borisova Sabina Vassileva |
| author_sort | Varvara Borisova |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article draws on the findings of ongoing ethnographic research to examine the use of self-tracking devices and the embodiment of numerical data in type 1 diabetes (T1D) and obesity (self)care. We engage the notion of industrial and post-industrial metabolism as proposed by Hannah Landecker (2013) to explore the technologically mediated, more-than-human dynamics of metabolic health. While studies tend to depict self-monitoring devices as reinforcing a rigid, mechanistic, and control-obsessed approach to bodies, we argue that if understood in terms of the post-industrial metabolic framework, they may be seen as tools of communication and regulation rather than control, enabling care for the metabolic processes enacted within extended more-than-human relations and the biosocial environment. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-3fee6641ec454f3297e7f3aeb79c9653 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2038-3215 |
| language | Italian |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | Dipartimento Culture e Società - Università di Palermo |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Archivio Antropologico Mediterraneo |
| spelling | doaj-art-3fee6641ec454f3297e7f3aeb79c96532025-08-20T03:32:09ZitaDipartimento Culture e Società - Università di PalermoArchivio Antropologico Mediterraneo2038-32152025-06-01282710.4000/145ooCaring for more-than-human metabolic health: Self-tracking technologies as tools of calculation and communication in obesity and type 1 diabetes careVarvara BorisovaSabina VassilevaThis article draws on the findings of ongoing ethnographic research to examine the use of self-tracking devices and the embodiment of numerical data in type 1 diabetes (T1D) and obesity (self)care. We engage the notion of industrial and post-industrial metabolism as proposed by Hannah Landecker (2013) to explore the technologically mediated, more-than-human dynamics of metabolic health. While studies tend to depict self-monitoring devices as reinforcing a rigid, mechanistic, and control-obsessed approach to bodies, we argue that if understood in terms of the post-industrial metabolic framework, they may be seen as tools of communication and regulation rather than control, enabling care for the metabolic processes enacted within extended more-than-human relations and the biosocial environment.https://journals.openedition.org/aam/10112obesitydatafication of healthself-trackingtype 1 diabetesmetabolism |
| spellingShingle | Varvara Borisova Sabina Vassileva Caring for more-than-human metabolic health: Self-tracking technologies as tools of calculation and communication in obesity and type 1 diabetes care Archivio Antropologico Mediterraneo obesity datafication of health self-tracking type 1 diabetes metabolism |
| title | Caring for more-than-human metabolic health: Self-tracking technologies as tools of calculation and communication in obesity and type 1 diabetes care |
| title_full | Caring for more-than-human metabolic health: Self-tracking technologies as tools of calculation and communication in obesity and type 1 diabetes care |
| title_fullStr | Caring for more-than-human metabolic health: Self-tracking technologies as tools of calculation and communication in obesity and type 1 diabetes care |
| title_full_unstemmed | Caring for more-than-human metabolic health: Self-tracking technologies as tools of calculation and communication in obesity and type 1 diabetes care |
| title_short | Caring for more-than-human metabolic health: Self-tracking technologies as tools of calculation and communication in obesity and type 1 diabetes care |
| title_sort | caring for more than human metabolic health self tracking technologies as tools of calculation and communication in obesity and type 1 diabetes care |
| topic | obesity datafication of health self-tracking type 1 diabetes metabolism |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/aam/10112 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT varvaraborisova caringformorethanhumanmetabolichealthselftrackingtechnologiesastoolsofcalculationandcommunicationinobesityandtype1diabetescare AT sabinavassileva caringformorethanhumanmetabolichealthselftrackingtechnologiesastoolsofcalculationandcommunicationinobesityandtype1diabetescare |