Shaping technology: biometric data, collective empowerment and humanization of work

More and more, people are encouraged to optimize their bodies and their way of living. Electronic tools providing feedback are often used for this purpose. In working life, organizational cultures increasingly demand individuals to control and optimize themselves while highly digitalized work settings tend to contribute to work intensification. In such a context, digital devices using biometric data may gain currency. These tools bear the risk of excessive (self-)optimization and thus foster ‘motivated self-endangerment’, i.e. to risk one’s health to advance professionally. However, such tools may also be used to help to protect employees’ health precisely under conditions of work intensification. The aim of the project is to explore the possibilities to use electronic tools providing feedback on states of the body to achieve a work-humanizing effect. To reach such an aim, a conscious and goal-oriented design of technology and specific social contexts of use are needed.
High workloads and stress levels are burning issues in many fields of white-collar work and thus of great interest to the general public. This project addresses these topic in a novel way. In particular, ShapeTech focuses the ambivalence between self-optimization on the one hand and health promotion on the other by exploring the design options and usage contexts of self-monitoring tools with the goal of humanizing highly digitalized work. In doing so, it will analyze how employees in such work environments use a self-monitoring tool based on biometric data to become aware of stressful situations at work. The project then investigates how workers may share their experiences in occupational health circles and how they may develop joint suggestions for improvements of work settings. The project will both promote humanized design and usage of self-monitoring tools currently gaining currency and explore the possibilities to use such tools to support the humanization of highly digitalized work settings.