| Judul | Notes Towards a Theory of Affect-Itself |
| Penulis | Patricia Ticineto Clough, Greg Goldberg, Rachel Schiff, Aaron Weeks and Craig Willse |
| Terbitan | www.ephemeraweb.org; volume 7(1): 60-77 |
| Bahasa | Inggris |
ABSTRACT
In this paper, we offer a series of notes toward a rethinking of affect in response to recent debates about the (im)measurability of value of affective labor. We propose shifting from a perspective that views affect as a property of the laborer to a conceptualization of what we call ‘affect-itself.’ We make this move by following recent rearticulations of matter, energy and information in the life sciences and quantum physics. Recent thinking in science points us to ways in which the value and measure of affect depend upon investments by both science and capital in dynamic matter’s capacities for self-forming. Far from rendering the measure of value irrelevant, an economy of affect-itself suggests that while measures had previously provided representations of value, affectivity itself has now become a means of measuring value that is itself productive of value. Finally, looking toward theorizations of neoliberal governmentality and politics of ‘pre-emption’ in relation to an economy of affect-itself, we offer a consideration of what politics might be, and could be, in such a context.
About the authors
Patricia Ticineto Clough is Professor of Sociology and Women Studies at Queens College and The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her most recent publications are Autoaffection: Unconscious Thought in the Age of Teletechnology Minnesota University Press (2000) and an edited collection titled The Affective Turn: Theorizing the Social forthcoming from Duke University Press (2007)
E-mail: pclough@gc.cuny.edu
Greg Goldberg is a doctoral candidate in Sociology at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is currently completing work on a dissertation that addresses the rise of digital audio technologies and peer-to-peer networks and their intersections with information theory and political economy. He also plays in a pop band with Craig Willse.
E-mail: ggoldberg@gc.cuny.edu
Rachel Schiff is a doctoral student in Sociology and Women Studies at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She obtained her bachelor’s degree at Wesleyan University.
E-mail: rschiff@gc.cuny.edu
Aaron Weeks is a doctoral student in Sociology at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is currently writing on the present-history of political technologies, theories of interpretation, and the relationship between fear and value.
E-mail: aweeks@gc.cuny.edu
Craig Willse is a doctoral candidate in Sociology at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is currently completing work on a dissertation that explores how information technologies are transforming psychiatric practices and programs of public mental health.
E-mail: cwillse@gc.cuny.edu
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