Andrew Feenberg, Critical Theory, and the Critique of Technology

Abstract

From the 1990s through the present, Andrew Feenberg has systematically developed a critical theory of technology that charts the development and increasing importance of technology in all facets of our lives and that develops a critical theory that articulates how technologies can serve as instruments or domination or emancipation and democratization. In this study, I shall interrogate Feenberg’s work in developing a critical theory of technology by engaging his key works of the 1990s that spell out his general theoretical and political perspectives, and that illustrate his theory with examples of democratizing and reconstructing technologies, focusing in particular on Alternative Modernity and Questioning Technology.