Clickbait Capitalism: Economies of Desire in the Twenty-First Century

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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.

Reviews

As the pursuit of profit becomes increasingly surreal, virtual, and exotic by the day, the symbiosis between libidinal and financial flows demands to be reframed and rethought. Indeed, the timing could not be better for this vital and important collection of essays, which do precisely that. Clickbait capitalism offers a stimulating and game-changing introduction to how the current confluence of economy and desire pre-empts our behaviour, structures our identity, influences our decisions, and tugs at our wallets.
Dominic Pettman, Professor of Media and New Humanities, The New School, author of Peak Libido

Lie back on the couch with this book and let it analyse your triggers and traumas about student debt and intergenerational inequity. Ramble down the royal road of the unconscious, interpreting the collective delirium from Cryptokitties to cryogenics, Squid Game to GameStop. These bracing chapters, invoking theorists from Adorno to iek, fuse psychology and economics to diagnose the neuroses of our moment. The results are electric!
Susan Zieger, Professor of English Literature, University of California, Riverside, co-editor of The Aesthetic Life of Infrastructure

A compelling and much-needed volume at the forefront of new research on libidinal political economy. It brilliantly illuminates the pivotal role of unconscious desire in multiple contemporary contexts, from social media and cryptocurrencies to job markets and racial capitalism.
Ilan Kapoor, Professor of Critical Development Studies, York University, Canada, co-author of Global Libidinal Economy

Author Bio

Amin Samman is Senior Lecturer in International Political Economy at City, University of London.

Earl Gammon is Senior Lecturer in Global Political Economy at the University of Sussex.