Subject in the Making: Technologies of the Self and Aspirations for a Good Life in Contemporary Denmark.

People pursue a good life not only by coping with crises but also by actively seeking improvement. In contemporary Denmark, three self-improvement practices—psychedelic micro-dosing, meditation and mindfulness, and fitness self-tracking—are compared using Foucault's concept of technologies of the self. These practices produce and reflect different notions of the self, yet all involve managing vulnerabilities by accepting, controlling, and balancing tensions between self-making and relation-making.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Coping with crisis is fundamental for human life, but so is the pursuit of everything good and fruitful. We revisit Foucault's technologies of the self as an analytical lens for what people do when pursuing a good life in contemporary Denmark. Comparing three emerging self-improvement domains; psychedelic micro-dosing, meditation and mindfulness, and fitness self-tracking, we explore processes though which individuals become subjects of their own actions. We argue that engaging in these transformational practices produces and reflects different notions of self, yet all involve attempts at managing vulnerabilities by accepting, controlling and balancing tensions between self-making and relation-making.