“Technology reveals the active relationship between humans and nature, the direct process by which they produce their lives, and in doing so, it also exposes the production of the social relations and mental conceptions that emerge from those relations” (Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, p. 493).
The Marxist Science and Technology Studies cluster draws inspiration from Marx’s analysis of technology and machinery in relation to labor and value production under capitalism. Our goal is to deepen our understanding of this relationship from a historical materialist perspective, paying particular attention to how political economy and sociocultural dynamics shape scientific and technological production.
In the first phase of our project, we will focus on compiling a public syllabus that centers on Marxist debates surrounding the social and economic processes of knowledge production, (in)commensurability, and alienation. We will then launch a public blog to share the syllabus and publish regular contributions drawn from our discussions.