Self-tracking as Health promotion

Self-tracking has become widespread in many parts of the world and is understood by many of its proponents as a way to obtain bodily control and through that to improve healthy living. As such self-tracking can be understood as a particular approach to practicing individual health promotion (even though this is not the only incentive for self-tracking). Even though health promotion is often seen as an activity, which resonates with a focus on individual responsibility, such a conception of health promotion contrasts with a broader critical concept of health promotion that emphasize social conditions for improving health and initiatives in social settings (as represented for example by the WHO Ottawa Charter). On the other hand, there is also an element of community orientation among many self-trackers through e.g. sharing and comparison of data via social media. This presentation will provide an analysis of social and community oriented dimensions of self-tracking as a form of health promotion compared to the above mentioned broad critical approach to health promotion in order to identify the contradictions as well as common traits and discuss implications for health promoting initiatives of practices of self-tracking.