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Clickbait capitalism: Economies of desire in the twenty-first century

Online ISBN:
9781526181435
Print ISBN:
9781526168160
Publisher:
Manchester University Press
Book

Clickbait capitalism: Economies of desire in the twenty-first century

Amin Samman (ed.),
Amin Samman
(ed.)
City, University of London
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Earl Gammon (ed.)
Earl Gammon
(ed.)
University of Sussex
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Published online:
23 May 2024
Published in print:
26 September 2023
Online ISBN:
9781526181435
Print ISBN:
9781526168160
Publisher:
Manchester University Press

Abstract

The notion of ‘clickbait’ speaks to the intersection of money, technology, and desire, suggesting a cunning ruse to profit from unsavoury inclinations of one kind or another. Clickbait capitalism pursues the idea that the entire contemporary economy is just such a ruse, an elaborate exercise in psychological capture and release. Pushing beyond rationalist accounts of economic life, this volume puts psychoanalysis and political economy into conversation with the cutting edges of capitalist development. Perennial questions of death, sex, aggression, enjoyment, despair, hope, and revenge are followed onto the terrain of the contemporary, with chapters devoted to social media, online dating apps, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and meme stocks. The result is a unique and compelling portrait of the latest institutions to stage, channel, or reconfigure the psychic energies of political and economic life.

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