The presents of the present

Mindfulness, time and structures of feeling

Bibliographic Data

ID12848528
AuthorsR Coleman (0000-0002-1390-2180, Goldsmiths University of London, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume23
Issue1
Pages131-148
Publication date2020-09-11
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueDistinktion Journal of Social Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1600-910X • E-ISSN: 2159-9149
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1600910x.2020.1810730
OpenAlexW3080927502
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited18

Mindfulness, as the cultivation of ways to become attentive to the present moment, has grown exponentially in some areas of the global north over the past decade or so. As such, it has generated much important debate about its efficacy and the politics it produces, especially in terms of whether and how mindfulness is a response to, or effect of, neoliberalism. Drawing on Berlant's argument that affects are structured and collective but not necessarily determinative of how people feel and act in relation to them, I explore the affective relations between mindfulness and contemporary (neo)liberal culture as a series of relays, modulations, or recalibrations. More specifically, I approach these affective relations through focusing on temporality. I argue that the practice of mindfulness as a deliberate and conscious focus on the present is central to how its value is imagined by those who promote it and experienced by those who practice it. Drawing on interviews with mindfulness practitioners, analysis of mindfulness books, online forums and communities, I centre the significance of the present to an understanding of the recent proliferation of mindfulness. I draw out the affectivity of mindfulness presents and think these ‘mindfulness presents’ alongside Berlant's identification of the significance of the present to contemporary liberal-capitalism. Situating my argument within broader work that sees time, temporality and affect as central means through which contemporary capitalism is organized and hence should be conceived, I examine how mindfulness is perhaps one way in which contemporary liberal-capitalism is felt and lived with

Aesthetics · Argument (complex analysis · Capitalism · Epistemology · Feeling · Mindfulness · Political science · Politics · Psychotherapist · Sociology · Subjectivity · Temporality · Employment and Welfare Studies · Humanities and Social Sciences · Law · Medicine · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics

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