Suggestions for the Further Advancement of the Critical Theory of Technology

• In Event: Modeling, Theorizing, and Criticizing Communication Technology

Abstract

Feenberg's critical theory of technology offers important suggestions for a socialist transformation of society, but wrongly brands Ellul's substantive theory as deterministic and focuses too narrowly on worker self-management as the primary mechanism of change. Drawing on Bakunin's anarchist and Gadamer's hermeneutic theories, this essay recuperates Ellul's expansive insight and reorients the critical theory toward a prioritization of dialogue as the basis for societal change in the realms of production, consumption, and decision-making.

Author

• Richard Potter, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign