EXERCISE AS LABOUR: QUANTIFIED SELF AND THE

TRANSFORMATION OF EXERCISE INTO LABOUR

BSA MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY ANNUAL CONFERENCE11 SEPTEMBER 2014ASTON UNIVERSITY

Chris Tillc.till@leedsmet.ac.uk@chrishtill

Digital devices transforming human activity into data

Enable statistical analysis and mapping of activity

Social networks allow comparison, competition and encouragement

SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF SELF-TRACKING

• A “BODY-MACHINE” METAPHOR WITH THE BODY DEFINED IN TERMS OF QUANTIFIED “INPUTS” AND “OUTPUTS” WITH SELF-TRACKERS POSITIONED AS “EXPERIMENTERS” ON THEIR OWN BODIES

• AN EXPRESSION OF NEO-LIBERAL ENTREPRENEURIALISM, ENABLING SELF-MAXIMISATION AND PROMOTING SELF-CRITIQUE AND RESPONSIBILISATION THROUGH THE PRESENTATION OF “OBJECTIVE” MEASURES OF PERFORMANCE

• PRACTICES OF “PROSUMPTION” CHARACTERISTIC OF THE USE OF WEB 2.0 IN WHICH USERS ARE BOTH CONSUMERS AND PRODUCERS OF DIGITAL MEDIA CONTENT, WHICH IS THE CONTEXT FOR THE CONSTITUTION OF VIRTUAL AND PHYSICAL COMMUNITIES

• A MEANS THROUGH WHICH A PARTICULAR KIND OF REFLEXIVE APPROACH TO THE SELF IS ENABLED THROUGH THE ANALYSIS OF DATA AND THE IMPERATIVE TO CONTROL THESE DATA AND ONESELF  

From: Lupton, D. Understanding the Human Machine. IEEE Technnol. Soc. Mag. 2013, 32, 25–30.

DIGITAL LABOUR• “IF YOU’RE NOT PAYING FOR IT; YOU’RE THE PRODUCT”• PROFITABILITY DEPENDENT ON “THE CUMULATIVE HOURS OF ACCESSING THE SITE

(THUS GENERATING ADVERTISING), WRITING MESSAGES, PARTICIPATING IN CONVERSATIONS AND SOMETIMES MAKING THE JUMP TO COLLABORATORS” (TERRANOVA, 2013:48)

• “AUDIENCES” NOW • PRODUCE AND CONSUME CONTENT• GENERATE PROFILES FOR ADVERTISERS

• PART OF MOVE TO PRECARIOUS LABOUR• DECENTRALISED• TEMPORARY• LOW PAID OR UNPAID• CREATIVITY AND SELF REALISATION MINGLED WITH WORK Terranova, T. Free Labor. In Digital Labor: The Internet

as Playground and Factory; Scholz, T., Ed.; Routledge: London, UK, 2013; pp. 33–57.

SELF-TRACKING: GENERATING VALUE• PRIVACY POLICIES (PEPPET):

• “NON-PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION” OFTEN SHARED BY MANY• NIKE AND FITBIT SHARE WITH COMPANIES UNDER “CORPORATE UMBRELLA”

• COMPANIES KEEPING TIGHT CONTROL OF DATA• QS COMMUNITY CALLING FOR GREATER CONTROL OF OWN DATA (PARECKI, 2013)

• DATA FOUND TO BE SHARED BY TRACKING COMPANIES• U.S. FTC FOUND USER DATA DISSEMINATED 76 3RD PARTIES INC.: EMAILS, USERNAMES,

EXERCISE INFO, MEAL+DIET INFO, GENDER + GEO-LOCATION.• STUDY BY EVIDON AND FINANCIAL TIMES FOUND…

Parecki, A. The Future of Quantified Self Devices. Available online: http://aaronparecki.com/articles/2013/10/11/1/the-future-of-quantified-self-devices

Federal Trade Commission. Internet of Things—Privacy and Security in a Connected World. Available online: http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/events-calendar/2013/11/internet-things-privacy-security-connected-world

Peppet, S.R. Regulating the Internet of Things: First Steps Towards Managing Discrimination, Privacy, Security & Consent. Available online: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2409074

SELF-TRACKING: GENERATING VALUE

http://www.evidon.com/blog/healthy-data-set

EXERCISE AS LABOUR

• LABOUR AS FORMATIVE ACTIVITY VIA OBJECTIFICATION• “CHANGE THE CHARACTER OF ANIMALS OR PEOPLE” (SAYERS, 2007: 435)

• EXCHANGE VALUE DETERMINED BY SOCIALLY NECESSARY LABOUR TIME• EST. OF SNLT REQUIRES “THE ACCUMULATION OF LABOR” (ROSS, 2013: 26)• EXERCISE ACTIVITIES QUANTIFIED IN STANDARDIZED FORM AMENABLE TO

COMPARISON + ACCUMULATION ∴ EXTRACTION OF VALUE

Sayers, S. The Concept of Labor: Marx and His Critics. Sci. Soc. 2007, 71, 431–454.

Ross, A. In Search of the Lost Paycheck. In Digital Labor: The Internet as Playground and Factory; Scholz, T. ed.; London: Routledge, 2013; pp. 13-32.

A THERMODYNAMIC MODEL?

• A “BODY-MACHINE” METAPHOR WITH THE BODY DEFINED IN TERMS OF QUANTIFIED “INPUTS” AND “OUTPUTS” WITH SELF-TRACKERS POSITIONED AS “EXPERIMENTERS” ON THEIR OWN BODIES

• OR…• C19TH ENERGY BECAME IMP. TO MANAGEMENT OF WORKERS

• “PRODUCTIVE INTENSITY” REPLACED HOURS WORKED AS KEY CONCERN (CAFFENTZIS)• “IF A MASS IS EXPLODING, YOU SHOULD GIVE IT A WAY OUT SO ORGANIZED THAT IT WILL PUSH A PISTON

AND THUS DO WORK FOR YOU” (CAFFENTZIS)• TO HARNESS ENERGY NEEDS TO BE “CAUGHT, FIXED, AND SERIALIZED” (HERSCHBACH, 1997: 39)• SELF-TRACKING PROVIDES METHOD FOR HARNESSING PREVIOUSLY “WASTED” ENERGY

Caffentzis, G. The work/energy crisis and the apocalypse. Available online: http://libcom.org/library/workenergy-crisis-apocalypse-george-caffentzis

Herschbach, L. Prosthetic reconstructions: Making the industry, re-making the body, modelling the nation. Hist. Workshop 1997, 44, 22–57.

CONVERGENCE OF EXERCISE AND WORK• WORK INCREASINGLY TRACKED

• TRACKING APPS FOR OFFICE PRODUCTIVITY• TESCO, AMAZON, ETC. USING MOVEMENT TRACKERS

• PRODUCTIVITY TRACKING USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH FITNESS TRACKING TO PROMOTE “CORPORATE WELLNESS”

CONCLUSIONS• EXERCISE ACTIVITY DIGITIZED, QUANTIFIED, ACCUMULATED AND ANALYSED IN ORDER

TO GENERATE COMMERCIALLY VALUABLE DATA• PARTICULARLY VALUABLE AS BEEN IDEOLOGICALLY CONSTITUTED AS “NOT WORK” • DIGITAL TRACKING OF EXERCISE ACTIVITIES AS A FORM OF THE ACCUMULATION OF

LABOUR, WHICH ENABLES EXTRACTION OF SURPLUS VALUE• BY TRANSFORMING HETEROGENEOUS EXERCISE ACTIVITIES INTO A STANDARDIZED,

QUANTIFIED FORM, THEY ARE ABLE TO BE MADE INTO A VALUABLE RESOURCE• THE EXERCISE ACTIVITIES IN WHICH PEOPLE ENGAGE ARE THEREFORE SEEN AS

PRODUCTIVE POTENTIAL ENERGY • CORPORATIONS LIKELY SUBTLY STRUCTURE BEHAVIOUR OF USERS TO PRODUCE KINDS

OF DATA THAT WILL BE OF COMMERCIAL VALUETill, C. (2014) ‘Exercise as Labour: Quantified Self and the Transformation of Exercise into Labour’ Societies 4(3) 446-462http://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/4/3/446