Digital md

1. Power relations of digital well-being
Semester 2 - Weeks 8 and 9 seminar
Dr. Lee Pretlove
INF109 Digital Media and
Society

2. Seminar structure
2
Addressing digital equality
A cartographic task
about power relations
and digital well-being
LENSA AI
Your thoughts of well-
being in a digital
society
Coding
Discussion about what
healthy habits are
Mapping power
relations
Digital well-being Healthy digital habits

3. Wooclap time #1
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4. Types of well-being
4
Human flourishing
Eudaimonia
● Stuff we need to live life well
Happiness
Hedonistic
● Positive mood
● No negativity
● Loving life
Metrics for well-being
Structural
● Measured against income
● Measured against housing standard
● Measured against structural
inequalities

5. Take back control?
5
Responsibilisation
- You are responsible for
the consequences of your
actions (Brown, 2005)
Neoliberalism
- Free market choices (Darn
- Social relations
competitive and marketised
- Individualised citizens of
self-care targeted
- Individual success and
discrete self-interest a
priority
Neoliberal responsibilisation
- You are consumers where your well-being is
reflected on you market choices (Schüll, 2016)
Dardot, P., & Laval, C. (2013). The New Way of the World: On Neoliberal Society. London, UK: Verso.
Davies, W. (2014). The Limits of Neoliberalism. London: Sage.
Harvey, D. (2007). A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
McGuigan, J. (2014). The Neoliberal Self. Culture Unbound, 6, 223-240.

6. Wooclap time #2
6

7. Mapping the power relations
7
Identify a digital health
application or device
Something you may
use or someone in
your group uses
Who is asking
us to be
healthy?
Who makes the
device?
Why are you using the
device?
What is being
asked of us?
What are we being
recommended to do
with the application or
device?
Is this OK?
What effects are
being produced
with behaviour
adoption?
Economic?
Social?
Political?
Environmental?
Legal compliance?
Ethical?
What ‘norms’
are at play
here?
Think about social
‘norms’ and
normativity.
What is ‘good’?
What is ‘bad’?
Who says?
This will be used in conjunction with the Wooclap application so we map together with an output

8. Your blog assessment
In what ways
do
issues related to
power relations of digital-wellbeing
impact upon
the development of digital societies?
● Remember to:
○ break down the components of the question
○ answer the question fully (identify the effect of impact
on DS!)
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