Technical Politics Critical Theory and Technology Design

by Kirkpatrick, Graeme

• ISBN13: 9781849660563
• ISBN10: 1849660565
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2016-05-19
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

In our rush for growth have we trusted too much to computers - and what bearing does this have on the current global economic meltdown? Why do we simultaneously panic about environmental destruction and refuse to give up cars, video games and i-phones? Andrew Feenberg is the most prominent critical theorist writing on technology today. His work is grounded in the tradition of Marcuse, the Frankfurt School and early Marx and his ideas, developed over the past thirty years, have grown in importance as technology itself has grown in significance. Feenberg's work brilliantly highlights the paradoxical process of assimilation and progress inherent in the growth of technology, in which our highest aspirations and our deepest fears co-mingle. This book offers a clear and accessible introduction to the central ideas raised in Feenberg's work. Drawing on a long interview conducted by the author with Feenberg, the book relates his ideas to a wide variety of contemporary issues and brings them into engagement with some of the alternative perspectives currently popular in disciplines outside philosophy, including sociology, politics, cultural studies and media theory.

Author Biography

Graeme Kirkpatrick is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Manchester, UK. He is the author of Critical Technology (2004) which won the 2005 Philip Abrams Memorial Prize from the British Sociological Association; Technology and Social Power (2008) and the co-editor of Historical Materialism and Social Evolution (2002).

Table of Contents

: <B>Part I: Exposition</B> : Chapter 1: Feenberg's Marx : Chapter 2: Instrumentalism : Chapter 3: Democratic Technology : <B>Part II: Critique</B> : Chapter 4: Limitations of Design Critique : Chapter 5: What's Wrong With Technical Reason? : Chapter 6: Humanising Technology : Bibliography : Index