The Power of the Machine
Subtitle: Global Inequalities of Economy, Technology, and Environment
Publisher: AltaMira Press
Published: November 15, 2001
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 264
ISBN-13: 9780759100664
Subjects: Impact of science & technology on society; Technology And Industrial Growth; Industries - General; Contemporary Economic Situations And Conditions; Social Science; Archaeology / Anthropology; Technology; Sociology; Technological innovations; Economics - General; Engineering - Mechanical; Social Science / Anthropology / General; Anthropology - General; Economic aspects
Description: "Hornborg argues that we are caught in a collective illusion about the nature of modern technology that prevents us from imagining solutions to our economic and environmental crises other than technocratic fixes. He demonstrates how the power of the machine generates increasingly asymmetrical exchanges and distribution of resources and risks between distant populations and ecosystems, and thus an increasingly polarized world order. The author challenges us to reconceptualize the machine - 'industrial technomass' - as a species of power and a problem of culture. He shows how economic anthropology has the tools to deconstruct the concepts of production, money capital, and market exchange, and to analyze capital accumulation as a problem at the very interface of the natural and social sciences. His analysis provides an alternative understanding of economic growth and technological development. Hornborg's work is essential for researchers in anthropology, human ecology, economics, political economy, world-systems theory, environmental justice, and science and technology studies."--Pub. desc.