Oct 24: Enterprising Selves

In our contemporary political formation, we are incited to be enterprising subjects responsible for our own profits and losses. In the realm of health and wellness, we become anxious consumers of health knowledge seeking to maximize our well-being and minimize disease risk. This endeavor may cross over into the domain of pleasure in our desire for self-realization. But what are the limits of this emphasis on self-responsibility? Does it let corporate interests off the hook despite their power to shape our food system to our detriment? Is this an unfairly balanced allocation of risk and blame?

Nikolas Rose's article doesn't talk about diet and nutrition exclusively, but it is rich with insights that we can apply toward the research project for the first paper. Social media is a veritable stage for narratives of self-realization ("forward agency" to use Berlant's term). 

Using the idea "technologies of the self" (the practices we use to work on our self), pick an example from your own project of self-realization or one that you have observed in others or even that you have read about in your research for the first paper.

Don't forget to include a quote from one of the readings for today.