The Capitalist Determination of Technical Change

David Laibman
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David Laibman: City University of New York

Chapter 6 in Capitalist Macrodynamics, 1997, pp 51-61 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract One of the most pervasive illusions of our time is technological determinism. Our culture promotes a firm belief in the ‘march of technical progress’, seen as an inevitable and external motor driving the shape of our social and economic life. This belief actually encompasses and contains its apparent opposite: the ritual rebellion against technology, science, and progress. The rejection of technology in its entirety appears as a futile gesture, which in fact confirms what we really thought all along: technology follows a preordained curve, and will ultimately prevail. This plays a direct ideological role, as when ‘technical change’ is blamed for a variety of ills, from the fragmentation of personality and loss of community to unemployment, regional decline, and many other symptoms and components of capitalist crisis.

Keywords: Technical Change; Mechanization Function; Engineering Culture; Capitalist Control; Profit Share (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1997
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-37534-5_6

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DOI: 10.1057/9780230375345_6

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