The subject of the project is the ambivalent consequences of an optimization logic that is highly oriented towards quantitative increase, as it has gained in importance in the course of digital change. By means of a tripartite project design, productive and counterproductive dimensions of the 'orientation towards numbers' and the measurement of life in the context of organizational and individual digital optimization processes and with regard to their intersubjective and psychological meanings are to be examined.
The project thus builds on the project "Aporien der Perfektionierung in der beschleunigten Moderne. Contemporary cultural change in self-designs, relationships and body practices" (APAS), which investigated the significance and consequences of the demands for optimization of social practice in different social fields and areas of life and with regard to changes in cultural norms and constructs of 'normality' and 'pathology'.
The sub-projects investigate the following areas of digitally quantifying optimization:
Sp I (Jena): The importance of and orientation towards numbers in the action practices and interaction modes of professional organizations.
Sp II (Frankfurt/M.): The importance of and orientation towards numbers, especially in the shaping of relationships in social media in relation to non-digital and face-to-face communication (Frankfurt) and in relation to patient groups (Berlin sample).
Sp III (Berlin): The meaning of and orientation towards numbers with special consideration of patients' bodily practices and in relation to non-patients (Frankfurt sample).
In its tripartite transdisciplinary research design and by means of method triangulation (quantitative and various qualitative approaches), the project continues the path successfully taken in the APAS project to analyze connections between different levels of the social as well as the tension between standardization and changes in practice up to the potential for excessive demands and pathology, and to develop new conceptual and methodological approaches to the analysis of the mediation of society and the individual, culture and psyche.
Original language: German