| Title |
Paying attention to waste: Apple's circular economy |
| ID_Doc |
537 |
| Authors |
Vonk, L |
| Title |
Paying attention to waste: Apple's circular economy |
| Year |
2018 |
| Published |
Continuum-Journal Of Media & Cultural Studies, 32, 6 |
| DOI |
10.1080/10304312.2018.1525923 |
| Abstract |
As popular awareness of global environmental crises rises, so too does the notion of a circular 'zero-waste' economy. In this context, and with electronic waste a rapidly growing waste stream, the electronics industry is the subject of increasing pressure to address its environmental impact. Growing piles of digital junk cast a shadow on economies centred on seemingly immaterial attention and information. Resultantly, key players in these economies are adopting circular economy influenced business practises and ideas. Superficially, such moves suggest a maturation of discourses that construct the digital commodity as 'green' and 'weightless' by way of acknowledging their physical presence. More broadly, circular economies may even represent a nascent tampering of the material excesses of capitalism. The article considers this relationship between the attention and circular economies. Apple, a digital goods and services company, is used as a case study. Taking a media ecologies perspective, I explore Apple's environmental goals and progress, and what this means for the attention economy more broadly. Ultimately, I argue that within economies where attention and information are of growing importance, circular economy discourses act to legitimize particular actors and drive consumption while simultaneously obscuring human and non-human forms of waste. |
| Author Keywords |
Apple; Media ecology; Circular economy; attention economy |
| Index Keywords |
Index Keywords |
| Document Type |
Other |
| Open Access |
Open Access |
| Source |
Social Science Citation Index (SSCI); Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI) |
| EID |
WOS:000451606900008 |
| WoS Category |
Cultural Studies; Communication; Film, Radio, Television |
| Research Area |
Cultural Studies; Communication; Film, Radio & Television |
| PDF |
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