Revealing the unheralded contributions of women of color to the foundation and development of the digital economy
The Inattention Economy challenges the widespread myth that the internet was born from the labor of a handful of white male entrepreneurs, recovering the uncredited and unpaid contributions of women of color. Focusing on three key inflection points in computing - the microchip era of the 1960s and '70s, the rise of social media in the 2000s, and A.I.-fueled virtual reality in the 2020s - Lisa Nakamura illuminates these women's instrumental roles in building new technologies and making them coherent to users.
From the Navajo women who manufactured the first semiconductor circuits in New Mexico to Tila Tequila, the queer Vietnamese American refugee who became the first true internet influencer in the MySpace age, to Black virtual reality creators, Nakamura highlights how women's gendered and racialized identities have uniquely positioned them to mediate the development and proliferation of new technologies. She exposes how these women have been structurally excluded from racial capitalism's benefits while their labor is considered as exploitable and inexhaustible as that of machines. Confronting this injustice, she focuses our attention on their work, which undergirds and makes possible the platforms ingrained in our daily lives.
Arguing for both recognition and material compensation for these women's labor, The Inattention Economy is a powerful counterhistory of Silicon Valley and a persuasive call to imagine a different kind of internet.
Retail e-book files for this title are screen-reader friendly with images accompanied by short alt text and/or extended descriptions.
| ISBN: | 9780816699049 |
| Publication date: | 21st May 2026 |
| Author: | Lisa Nakamura |
| Publisher: | University of Minnesota Press an imprint of University Of Minnesota Press |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 200 pages |
| Genres: |
History of Computing, digital and information technologies Ethnic groups and multicultural studies History of engineering and technology Digital and information technologies: social and ethical aspects |
Revealing the unheralded contributions of women of color to the foundation and development of the digital economy
The Inattention Economy challenges the widespread myth that the internet was born from the labor of a handful of white male entrepreneurs, recovering the uncredited and unpaid contributions of women of color. Focusing on three key inflection points in computing - the microchip era of the 1960s and '70s, the rise of social media in the 2000s, and A.I.-fueled virtual reality in the 2020s - Lisa Nakamura illuminates these women's instrumental roles in building new technologies and making them coherent to users.
From the Navajo women who manufactured the first semiconductor circuits in New Mexico to Tila Tequila, the queer Vietnamese American refugee who became the first true internet influencer in the MySpace age, to Black virtual reality creators, Nakamura highlights how women's gendered and racialized identities have uniquely positioned them to mediate the development and proliferation of new technologies. She exposes how these women have been structurally excluded from racial capitalism's benefits while their labor is considered as exploitable and inexhaustible as that of machines. Confronting this injustice, she focuses our attention on their work, which undergirds and makes possible the platforms ingrained in our daily lives.
Arguing for both recognition and material compensation for these women's labor, The Inattention Economy is a powerful counterhistory of Silicon Valley and a persuasive call to imagine a different kind of internet.
Retail e-book files for this title are screen-reader friendly with images accompanied by short alt text and/or extended descriptions.
The Inattention Economy features in the following genres: History of Computing, digital and information technologies, Ethnic groups and multicultural studies, History of engineering and technology, Digital and information technologies: social and ethical aspects
The Inattention Economy is available in Hardback, Paperback
The Inattention Economy was written by Lisa Nakamura and published by University of Minnesota Press an imprint of University Of Minnesota Press
The Inattention Economy has 200 pages
£72.00