1,724,951 research outputs found
Models of subjectivity for reading the Crisis : Consciousness and Emotion in William James
No full textAttention and its Crisis in Digital Society
No full textIn the context of debates surrounding the effects of new technologies on our mental faculties, particularly the attention span, this volume addresses the notion of a deterioration of attention, and the related ideas of cognitive overload, an inability to concentrate, and attention deficit disorder. Through a new conceptualization of attention based not on individualistic or universalistic approaches, but centered instead on the cultural and social variability of cognitive processes and the multiplicity of forces and environments that encourage, stimulate, and inhibit certain cognitive mechanisms, the author rejects the idea of a degradation or crisis of attention and proposes an alternative vision of the problem of attention in contemporary societies. Placing cultural conventions, social norms, and ecological environments at the forefront of our understanding of individual and collective attention, Attention and its Crisis in Digital Society will appeal to scholars of sociology, psychology, and philosophy with interests in social theory, cognitive processes, and the criticisms often levelled at digital society and new technologies
Gabriel Tarde, L’opinione e la folla (1901-2021), a cura di Sabina Curti, Meltemi, 2022, 163 pp
No full textLa ricezione dell’opera di Gabriel Tarde [1843-1904] ha seguito percorsi tortuosi. In Francia, e di riflesso nel mondo anglosassone, gli atteggia-menti nei confronti di Tarde sono stati infatti contrastanti: molti lo hanno ignorato mentre altri, più di una volta e con toni entusiastici, lo hanno salutato come un antesignano, un padre nobile o un geniale precursore
Attenzione, distrazione, cura: una svolta negli studi critici sull’attenzione?
Full text linkPer lunghissimo tempo il tema dell’attenzione è stato appannaggio quasi esclusivo della psicologia cognitiva e, più di recente, della neuropsicologia cognitiva. Tanto le ricerche sugli effetti delle nuove tecnologie nello sviluppo della mente, quanto le prospettive che si richiamano all’economia dell’attenzione, basano le loro analisi proprio sui risultati offerti da queste discipline
Uno strano oggetto per la sociologia: l’attenzione come processo sociale
Full text linkConsidered a crucial resource, to be exploited for profit or to be protected as a common good, attention has attracted the interest of many disciplines. Despite this, sociology has not yet proposed a systematic analysis of it. The goal of this paper is to show the sociological relevance and heuristic utility of the concept of attention. In the first part, an initial definition of ‘attention’, in relation especially to the concepts of selection and limitation of attentional resources, is provided. Then, the most recent and relevant perspectives that have elected attention as an object of sociological investigation are discussed: the school of cognitive sociology that refers to the figure of Eviatar Zerubavel, the perspectives that look at attention as a resource and Dominique Boullier’s idea of ‘regimes of attention’. Overall, it is shown how adopting a particular metaphor for the study of attention tends to implicitly guide the choice of the elements considered relevant to the observed phenomenon. Therefore, the limitations and potentialities of the different perspectives are analyzed, the points of convergence are explored, and, in conclusion, possible future lines of research are mentioned
Oltre la risorsa. Per una critica radicale dell’economia dell’attenzione
Full text linkThis article examines the epistemological and ethical implications of narratives surrounding the attention economy, highlighting the convergences between critical perspectives and the enthusiastic rhetoric of public discourse. In particular, it shows how both positions – despite their opposing intentions – share the same definition of attention. Conventional critical approaches thus implicitly accept the premises of the very model they aim to critique. In the first part, the article traces the evolution of the concept of the “attention economy” and identifies the epistemological and ethical assumptions common to various approaches. It then explores the cultural and technological conditions that have contributed to the rise of this category as a dominant interpretative framework. The article argues that, far from representing a rupture with previous or contemporary concepts such as the “information society,” the idea of the attention economy actually radicalizes and extends the defining logics of postmodern social narratives
The Social Brain: Sociological Foundations
No full text“Genes and neurons are social entities” (p. 133). If such a statement may sound radical or even provocative, it is not so much due to the content itself. Rather, it is a consequence of the hegemony of the most reductionist approaches that have influenced the study of cognition during the past thirty years. These approaches suggest that to uncover the secrets of human cognition, emotions, and behavior, we need to focus solely on the brain, neurons, or genes. But the limitations of these paradigms are becoming increasingly evident. Indeed, many scholars regard it as an essential need to find credible alternative models. It is now necessary to design models that integrate the biological, cultural, social, and technological aspects of cognition without prioritizing any single element. Despite the ongoing dominance of reductionist perspectives, alternative theoretical proposals have always existed; they were put forth by social scientists, life scientists, and neuroscientists. Sal Restivo relies precisely on this diverse literature to formulate his “social brain” model in The Social Brain: Sociological Foundations, with the aim to “integrate and extrapolate the various emerging proposals designed to revise classical thinking about the brain/mind/body and the directions such revisions should be taking. This integration has led to the most highly networked model of the brain-in-the-world literature” (p. 116)
Fallimenti digitali. Un’archeologia dei ‘nuovi’ media, a cura di Paolo Magaudda e Gabriele Balbi, Milano, Unicopli, 2017, 186 pp.
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