Attention, Economy and the Brain

In recent years, the notion of attention has come to occupy a key place within the overall discourse surrounding what has been called ‘the new economy ‘ or ‘digital economy’, but also within the critical analyses of cultural theorists evaluating the politics of digital media. Theories of the attention economy are considered here as a continuation of the modern theme of the ‘crisis of attentiveness’ (Crary, 1999), this time elaborated in terms of the impact of Internet usage on the cognitive architecture of a neuroplastic and mimetic social brain. This essay maps some of the ways in which the notion of ‘attention’ is mobilized as an economic category within theories of the Internet, framed in terms of neoclassical or mainstream economics theory and within theories attempting to account for processes of psychic transindividuation and social cooperation in contemporary capitalism.

[1]  John Wise.  Attention and assemblage in the clickable world , 2013 .

[2]  P. Churchland.  Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us About Morality , 2011 .

[3]  Jussi Parikka,et al.  Insect Media: An Archaeology of Animals and Technology , 2010 .

[4]  Steven Shaviro.  Post Cinematic Affect , 2010 .

[5]  Jodi Dean,et al.  Blog Theory: Feedback and Capture in the Circuits of Drive , 2010 .

[6]  S. Lucarelli,et al.  Dall'euforia al panico. Pensare la crisi finanziaria e altri saggi , 2010 .

[7]  B. Stiegler.  For a New Critique of Political Economy , 2010 .

[8]  V. Ramachandran,et al.  Mirror neurons and imitation learning as the driving force behind "the great leap forward" in human evolution , 2010 .

[9]  M. Foucault.  The Birth of Biopolitics , 2008 .

[10]  Michael H. Goldhaber,et al.  The value of openness in an attention economy , 2006, First Monday.

[11]  Jonathan L. Beller.  The Cinematic Mode of Production: Attention Economy and the Society of the Spectacle , 2006 .

[12]  Marshall W. Van Alstyne,et al.  An Economic Response to Unsolicited Communication , 2005 .

[13]  John Battelle.  The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture , 2005 .

[14]  Tiziana Terranova.  Network Culture: Politics for the Information Age , 2004 .

[15]  J. Crary,et al.  Suspensions of Perception , 1999 .

[16]  Richard Beardsworth,et al.  Technics and Time, 1: The Fault of Epimetheus , 1998 .

[17]  Kevin F. Kelly.  New rules for the new economy : 10 radical strategies for a connected world , 1998 .

[18]  Kevin F. Kelly.  New Rules for the New Economy , 1998 .

[19]  Maurizio Lazzarato,et al.  Lavoro immateriale : forme di vita e produzione di soggettività , 1997 .

[20]  Donna Haraway,et al.  Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science , 1990 .

[21]  F. D. Waal.  Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes , 1982 .