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  4. On the cult of the individual: The Quantified Self public gatherings, self-tracking, and individualism
 
research article

On the cult of the individual: The Quantified Self public gatherings, self-tracking, and individualism

Rigal, Alexandre  
2024
Current Sociology

The article explores the relationship between individualism and group affiliation in the context of self-tracking technology. Prior research establishes that self-tracking fosters both self-focus and collective interactions. The article proposes that Durkheim’s notion of the cult of the individual offers a lens to understand the interplay of individualism and group formation in self-tracking. The notion of the cult of the individual suggests that individualism can be a source of public gatherings. While Durkheim’s notion remained largely untested for over a century, this study aims to build upon Durkheim’s framework by operationalizing it using Collins’s interaction ritual theory. By operationalizing the cult of the individual as a specific form of interaction ritual, we can analyze the collective mechanisms at play within the Quantified Self movement. This group organizes a community of self-trackers who share personal data during public gatherings. The article explores these public gatherings by deciphering their video recordings. Quantified Self-individualist gatherings are constituted by the co-presence of self-focused people, presenting one after the other their personal data following a script, and defending individuals against profaning situations. Quantified Self gatherings formed a transnational interaction ritual chain in approximately 71 cities on four continents, confirming that individualist gatherings can achieve a wide diffusion. Therefore, this original operationalization of Durkheim’s notion of the cult of the individual illustrates its enduring relevance and potential for broader application.

  • Details
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Type
research article
DOI
10.1177/00113921241275680
Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85205236544

Author(s)
Rigal, Alexandre  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Date Issued

2024

Published in
Current Sociology
Subjects

Individual

•

individualism

•

interaction ritual

•

self

•

self-tracking

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
LASUR  
FunderFunding(s)Grant NumberGrant URL

Swiss National Science Foundation

P2ELP1_184536

Available on Infoscience
January 25, 2025
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/243995
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