Technology and/in capitalism – the genesis and relevance of the relationship for the present ecologically unsustainable order

Vrečko Ilc, Blaž (author)

The article critically analyses the crucial relationship between capitalism and technology(ies) in its historical and foundational dimension and its unprecedented natural-environment-altering dimension. It is argued that existing research in political science and political theory and progressive and emancipatory critiques of the unsustainable, exploitative nature of contemporary capitalism lack a critical interrogation of this relationship, which it attributes to a naïve, simplistic and problematic understanding of technology(ies) as neutral instrument(s). Building on materialist and neo-Luddite critiques, a comprehensive analytical framework is developed and applied to critically examine the genesis and nature of the relationship in its various dimensions and contexts, including the birth of the factory system, modern transportation, and modern ICTs. The analysed technological systems are demonstrated to be inherently capitalistic and environmentally unsustainable and their radical transformation should be at the centre of sustainable visions of a future socio-economic order.

• Language: English
• Keywords: technology, capitalism, industrialisation, materialist critique, neo-Luddism, ecological crisis
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication date: 01.07.2024
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 313-339
• Numbering: Letn. 61, št. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-160901-bc41dbb6-0a5c-85dc-671f-070d4db8785c
• UDC: 330.342.14:502.131.1
• ISSN on article: 0040-3598
• DOI: 10.51936/tip.61.2.313
• COBISS.SI-ID: 200736515
• Publication date in RUL: 05.09.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Teorija in praksa : revija za družbena vprašanja
• Shortened title: Teor. praksa
• Publisher: Fakulteta za družbene vede
• ISSN: 0040-3598
• COBISS.SI-ID: 763652

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Tehnologija in/v kapitalizem(u) – geneza in relevantnost razmerja za sodobno ekološko nevzdržno ureditev

Abstract

Članek analizira osrednje razmerje med kapitalizmom in tehnologijo(ami) v njegovi zgodovinski, utemeljujoči in okolje radikalno spreminjajoči se dimenziji. Pri tem izpostavlja, da je to razmerje v prevladujočem politološkem raziskovanju in tudi v progresivnih in emancipatornih kritikah netrajnostne, izkoriščevalske narave kapitalizma deležno premalo pozornosti. To stanje pripisuje naivnemu, poenostavljenemu in problematičnemu razumevanju tehnologij kot nevtralnih inštrumentov. Na temelju materialističnih in neoludističnih kritik članek razvije in uporabi celovito analitičen okvir za kritično preizpraševanje geneze in narave omenjenega razmerja v njegovih različnih razsežnostih in kontekstih. Osredini se na rojstvo tovarniškega sistema, modernega transporta in modernih IKT-jev. Pri tem pokaže, da so analizirani tehnološki sistemi inherentno kapitalistični in netrajnostni ter da bi morala biti njihova radikalna transformacija v samem temelju katerekoli vizije prihodnje naravno vzdržne ureditve.

• Keywords: tehnologija, kapitalizem, industrializacija, materialistična kritika, neoludizem, okoljska kriza