Attention as a Field Effect: A Field-Theoretical Account of Attention

• In Event: Sociology of Culture Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): 1. Digital Publics & Algorithmic Culture(s)

Abstract

This paper develops a field theoretical account of attention that relocates attention from the domain of individual cognition to that of relational structure. Rather than treating attention as a scarce mental resource or an inner faculty, we conceptualize it as an effect emerging from the patterned organization of social fields. Drawing on field theory, John Levi Martin’s relational ontology, Harrison White’s theory of netdoms, and selected insights from assemblage approaches, we argue that attention is generated through structured configurations of power, value, competition, and uncertainty. What becomes salient is not determined by intrinsic properties of objects but by their positional weight within a field’s hierarchy of relevance. Technological infrastructures such as platforms, metrics, and algorithmic systems intensify these dynamics by materializing and stabilizing field generated struggles over visibility. We further introduce the concept of liminal attention to capture the diffuse yet persistent state of perceptual orientation characteristic of contemporary environments saturated with evaluative pressure and shaped by survival related uncertainties that impose continuous attentional demands. By treating attention as a field effect, this paper offers a sociological framework for analyzing how social fields organize perception itself, shaping what actors notice, pursue, and experience as consequential.

Authors

• Dong-Kyun Im, Seoul National University

• Ji Hye Kim, Sogang University

• Hye Won Kwon, University of Turku