M. Ellul's view of technology is that once it is let out of the laboratory, technology cannot be turned off. Technology begets more technology. The modern world, therefore, is one in which more technology is inevitable. Fixing or remediating the impact of a technology like water pollution requires--you guessed it--more technology.

One of the main reasons that liberal democratic societies are not ill-prepared to confront the present challenge presented by disaffection with democratic institutions, is that the type of political theory currently in vogue is dominated by an individualistic, universalistic, and rationalistic framework. This erases the dimension of the political and impedes envisaging in an adequate manner the nature of a pluralistic democratic public sphere. This paper examines the most recent paradigm of liberal democracy: 'deliberative democracy', in order to bring to (...) the fore its shortcomings. Then, the authos puts forward some element for the elaboration of an alternative model that she proposes to call 'agonistic pluralism'. (shrink)

At the end of a thoughtful article on the future of nuclear war, Wiesner and York concluded that: "Both sides in the arms race are... confronted by the dilemma of steadily increasing military power and steadily decreasing national security. It is our considered professional judgment that this dilemma has no technical solution. If the great powers continue to look for solutions in the area of science and technology only, the result will be to worsen the situation.".

AbeBooks.com: The Technological Society.

This paper argues for the development of a poststructuralist political ecology. While political ecology studies the relationships between society and nature in contexts of power—particularly from the perspective of political economy—this study, it is proposed, must include a consideration of the discourses and practices through which nature is historically produced and known. The paper examines the complex cultural and discursive articulations between natural and social systems established by capital and technoscience, particularly through discourses of sustainable development and biodiversity conservation. The (...) paper concludes with the implications of the analysis for imagining alternative productive rationalities in conjunction with social movements. (shrink)

A penetrating analysis of our technical civilization and of the effect of an increasingly standardized culture on the future of man.