Critical Theory of Technology by Andrew Feenberg

Author:Andrew Feenberg [Andrew Feenberg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2009-01-20T13:51:00+00:00

III

CULTURE

Are capitalist and communist societies "converging" under the influence of the "technological imperatives" of the industrial system they share? The critical theory of technology challenges this widespread view and argues that technology does not determine a particular form of society. Technology is in large measure a cultural product, and thus any given technological order is a potential starting point for divergent developments depending on the cultural environment that shapes it. Observed convergences can only be explained on a cultural basis.

Although it was created under the cultural and economic constraints of capitalism, industrial technology could in principle be bent to new purposes in the course of the transition to socialism. After its transformation, it could then be routinely employed in the service of cultural values quite different from those that presided over its creation. From an economic standpoint, the dependence of technology on culture means that alternative rationalizations are possible, each equally "efficient" in terms of achieving its own ends, but employing different configurations of means to do so.

This section applies this nondeterministic approach to the related problems of why communist societies have faltered in the attempt to build a new society, and how an effective transition might be initiated. The first chapter elaborates a method of study of communist societies that enlarges the range of variables in order to account for a wider range of outcomes than the traditional methods. The second chapter constructs a model of the transition to socialism based on the leading role of culture in the process of technological development.

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