Affective Networks

Abstract

This article sets out the idea of affective networks as a constitutive feature of communicative capitalism. It explores the circulation of intensities in contemporary information and communication networks, arguing that this circulation should be theorized in terms of the psychoanalytic notion of the drive. The article includes critical engagements with theorists such as Guy Debord, Jacques Lacan, Tiziana Terranova, and Slavoj Zizek.

Keywords

• technoculture
• feedback, drive, affect, psychoanalysis, networks, communication, information, capitalism, blogs, neoliberalism