The City Authentic: How the Attention Economy Builds Urban America
Because “everything is for sale” on social media, writes media scholar Zoe Hurley, it is assumed that “everything and everyone participating in the social media landscape is doing so for commercial gain. Projecting a fantasy or giving a performance of ‘authentic’ life is the important thing as authenticity itself becomes commodified.”70
David A. Banks • The City Authentic: How the Attention Economy Builds Urban America
A legitimizing identity is directly related to a dominant force, usually the state. To identify as a “patriot,” with all its connotations, helps to legitimate the power of the state by indicating that there are people willing to die for its continued existence. A resistance identity also related to power but is usually forged in reaction to an
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Where to put the price tag or, to put it in a more academic way, where value is stored is one of the central quandaries in the City Authentic, a term I use not only to title this book but to describe a set of policies, practices, and ideas that leverage our modern desires for meaning and belonging to drive economic development.
David A. Banks • The City Authentic: How the Attention Economy Builds Urban America
Capitalists build cities designed for bourgeois identity performance and commerce only to invest in them so heavily that all that can afford to exist are carefully managed environments: postmodern corporate mishmashes of symbols and architectural referents that have no discernible connection to a past, only a technologically mediated amalgam of
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But just because the cosmopolitan liberal cultural trend generally comes before the reactionary political achievement does not mean the former causes the latter. In fact, there is much stronger evidence to suggest both are popular cultural reactions to the three contradictions of rent.
David A. Banks • The City Authentic: How the Attention Economy Builds Urban America
The role of culture in urban development has always been understood as a reserve of political power whether that be as a means of distraction and subjugation or a rallying cry for liberation.
David A. Banks • The City Authentic: How the Attention Economy Builds Urban America
But then the City Authentic came to town and everything—from the buildings to the city government’s website—was reoriented to grab outsiders’ attention through the conspicuous deployment of authenticity peddling.
David A. Banks • The City Authentic: How the Attention Economy Builds Urban America
Perhaps, then, we should return to our initial supposition: authenticity isn’t about a person’s or a thing’s origin; it is about how we feel. What if authenticity emerges out of a relationship between tourist and destination, audience and celebrity, or, generically, subject and object?
David A. Banks • The City Authentic: How the Attention Economy Builds Urban America
When we hear the phrase “attention economy,” we tend to associate it with social media companies, but the truth of the matter is that attracting the attention of potential employers and grant-making foundations is just as important and common as seeking YouTube subscribers.