"A stunning compendium on a cluster of technologies that is remaking our world. Governing Global Emotions provides an authoritative view of emotion-tracking that is enlightening and frequently disturbing."-- William Davies, author of Nervous States and The Happiness Industry "In an era of extreme ideologies and affective politics, Governing Global Emotions arrives as a critical intervention. Jessica Pykett carves out new terrain for geography, media studies, and STS, developing a compelling theory of 'emotional governance' and 'neurocapitalism.' Through careful analysis--ranging from neuroscience to app design--she reveals how emotions have become machinic, instrumentalized technologies of power. Essential reading for anyone rethinking the entanglement of politics, capital, and media at a global scale."-- Orit Halpern, co-author of The Smartness Mandate "At the heart of Governing Global Emotions , Jessica Pykett offers an innovative and compelling claim that understanding contemporary modes of government means understanding a new space that has opened up between the political function of emotions and the new technical capacities of sensory technologies. Taking the reader from ticklish rats to anxious cities, Pykett offers a critical and deeply researched but never dull account of how what she calls 'feelism' has moved to the center of contemporary governance regimes--and what it means for the management of human conduct today.
" --Des Fitzgerald, author of The City of Today is a Dying Thing and coauthor of The Urban Brain "This work stands out for its interdisciplinarity and its recognition that commercial and governmental attempts to interpret emotional life through machines pose a growing societal challenge, especially for the Global South. It makes complex emotion sciences legible for policy, technology, and social inquiry, showing how uncritical assumptions about 'global' emotions have profound political and ethical implications. As emotion technologies grow in usage, this analysis arrives at exactly the moment it is most needed." --Andrew McStay, author of Automating Empathy: Decoding Technologies that Gauge Intimate Life "An original analysis of the emerging phenomenon of 'digital emotional governance,' demonstrating how emotions have been technologized, economized and spatialized in recent years. The book makes a sustained and significant contribution, introducing several new, innovative concepts and expertly drawing upon an impressive and diverse range of literature from the social and affective sciences."-- Jonathan G. Heaney, Queen's University Belfast "The analysis is striking not only for its depth but its contemporaneity. The writing is precise and crisp, the eye for detail illuminating and reflective of a commanding knowledge of the field.
"-- Sam Binkley, Emerson College.