Giving Attention to Conduct on Social Media: Discursive Mechanisms of Attention Structures in Mediating Governance-at-a-distance in Today’s Russia
Abstract
Some recent legal and political interventions implemented in Russia aim to regulate the spheres of the life of the individual, such as sexuality, freedom of speech, and information. Drawing on Foucault’s work on the technologies of governance and, in particular, his conceptualization of discipline and governmentality, this article examines the range and the reach of these transformations into the everyday communication and practices of individuals. By analyzing the discursive mechanisms through which the actors give attention to the practices of censorship at the computer-mediated site Woman.ru, the study demonstrates how the attention structures formed in the interaction enable governance to operate at a distance across the technologies of omnipresent surveillance and strategic conduct.