A call for a new political economy of attention: Mindfulness as a new commons

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter posits that we underestimate the way in which our immersion in the ‘social logic’ of capitalist consumption constrains our attempts to understand and respond to the ecological crises at both a personal and political level – and that both dimensions of our response are bound together.

Methodology/approach

Survey of literature on psychology, well-being and mindfulness.

Findings

How has the culture of capitalism – its psychic investment in colonizing our attention – compromised our ability to respond meaningfully to the challenges of sustainable development? In an acknowledgement of a certain closure around such themes within Western thought, I look to a point of exteriority in Peter Hershock’s work, drawing on China’s Chan Buddhist philosophy, for intimations of a worldview that challenges the West’s over-commitment to forms of ‘control’ in favour of a cultivation of mindful and careful awareness – and an offering of unconditional attention.

Social implications

Draws attention to a new phase of ‘enclosure’ in the cultural processes of capitalism.

Originality/value of paper

Original introduction of a critical approach to mindfulness in the debate on well-being.

Citation

Doran, P. (2013), "A call for a new political economy of attention: Mindfulness as a new commons", Environmental Philosophy: The Art of Life in a World of Limits (Advances in Sustainability and Environmental Justice, Vol. 13), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 111-135. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2051-5030(2013)0000013009