Introduction : Self-care Translated into Practice

The overall expectation placed upon individuals to take responsibility for their own life, has in cultural studies been described in terms of neo-liberalism and defined as an internationally prevailing ideological paradigm (Dean 1999; Smart 2003; Gilbert 2008). In this thematic section of Culture Unbound there are many examples of how, if and when these ideas affect people’s everyday life. The discussions revolve around living with long-term sickness, the organization of healthcare, and questions concerning well-being. This is a special issue that analyses how cultural ideas about self-care and self-care management take practical form, looking for those social practices that are uncertain and ambiguous (Reckwitz 2002). In this introduction, we as theme-editors present the predominant themes that are discussed in more depth in the individual articles. In view of how personal strategies for living and life planning are open to continual revision and how those strategies increasingly emphasize the relationship between identity and the biological (Kaufman 2010), we seek to explore how this is translated into practice. Self-care and its technologies take place in everyday life, and will be examined using an ethnographic approach