Attention is a socially produced and politically governed resource, not merely a scarce one.
Evidence
A narrow focus on “attention economy” could benefit from being reformulated as a broader social question regarding the political economy of attention. To follow Karl Polanyi (1957), we would be well-advised to start by recognizing that the “production,” “circulation,” and “consumption” of attention are inherently social and political activities. Social scientists must cast a wider net than seeing attention merely as a scarce resource. As Citton (2017) points out, the task at hand is to “identify the collective ‘attentional regimes’ through which we are led to perceive the world” (p. 17). — Annual Review of Anthropology contributors (⚠ verify author line), The Political Economy of Attention, 19
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the reader’s platform/surveillance reading thread: platform economics treats ‘attention’ as a raw input, whereas a Polanyian lens reframes it as embedded in social institutions — echoes work on surveillance capitalism and data extraction. — connects to: Herbert Simon defined attention as the scarce resource that information consumes. — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 35; Collective political attention is structured by environmental agenda-setting mechanisms. — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 133; Attention is the scarce resource that powers the information economy. — Michael H. Goldhaber, The Attention Economy and the Net, 8 (+12 more)
- SEED: Angle for an essay: reframe ‘attention economy’ critiques (ads, doomscrolling) through Polanyi’s embeddedness/disembedding — how algorithmic attention is the financialization of a previously socially embedded activity.
Related
- Attention has emerged as a site of political, economic, and moral struggle (similarity 0.91)
- Attention is socially and materially mediated, not just a scarce mental resource (similarity 0.90)
- Attention is the scarce resource that powers the information economy. (similarity 0.89)
- Attention is becoming the hegemonic resource restructuring material production (similarity 0.89)
- Attention functions as a political economy embedded in specific temporal contexts (similarity 0.88)
- Attention is an activity that forms persons, not a resource that platforms act upon (similarity 0.87)
- Collective political attention is structured by environmental agenda-setting mechanisms. (similarity 0.87)
- Attention scarcity is a capitalist construction, not a universal given (similarity 0.87)
- Attention is a shared common resource, not private property. (similarity 0.87)
- Abundant information makes human attention a scarce economic resource. (similarity 0.87)
- Attention has long been treated as valuable and manipulable, not only digitally. (similarity 0.85)
- Attention-economy analysis must be reframed within a broader attention ecosophy (similarity 0.84)
- Attention is a finite resource whose unequal distribution produces symbolic misery (similarity 0.84)
- Attention operates as a form of capital that accrues interest and concentrates inequality. (similarity 0.84)
- Paying attention differs from spending time or being aware. (similarity 0.84)
Broader Connections
- Attention is socially and materially mediated, not just a scarce mental resource
#corroborates(0.95) — Annual Review of Anthropology contributors (⚠ verify author line), The Political Economy of Attention, 26 - Human serial attention limits make attention the scarce resource
#qualifies(0.85) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 137 - Attention functions as a political economy embedded in specific temporal contexts
#expands(0.85) — Annual Review of Anthropology contributors (⚠ verify author line), The Political Economy of Attention, 25 - Attention is an activity that forms persons, not a resource that platforms act upon
#complicates(0.80) — Annual Review of Anthropology contributors (⚠ verify author line), The Political Economy of Attention, 68 - Attention is a scarce resource drained by information overload
#qualifies(0.80) — Thomas Davenport & John Beck, The Attention Economy, 17 - Attention is the mind’s selective possession of one focus amid several possible ones.
#contradicts(0.80) — Michael H. Goldhaber, The Attention Economy and the Net, 5 - Attention asymmetries stem from production structures, not individual bad will.
#expands(0.80) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 189 - Joint attention practices generate shared political power.
#expands(0.75)