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

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.

Author: Amin Samman
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 09/26/2023
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.97lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.63d
ISBN: 9781526168160

About the Author

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