Democratising the forces of re/production. AI planning as sensing apparatus for a degrowth economy

Abstract

This article contributes to the discussion on the role of technology for degrowth by exploring the Marxian concept of productive forces. It argues against a techno-deterministic understanding of the concept present in both the opposing camps of eco-modernism and degrowth. Instead, it suggests an interpretation of productive forces as the totality of what human beings are able to do. This definition focusses on positive and negative potentials instead of the current technological state of the art. This emphasis of potentials makes the concept of productive forces more suitable for an ecological politics than the term technology, which is rooted in what currently is. Furthermore, the emphasis on potentials makes it possible to systematically identify the political and not merely technical nature of the productive forces. Such a perspective allows for a more precise critique of environmentally destructive technologies that does not fall into the trap of technological fetishism, i.e. turning technology itself into the subject behind the catastrophe. Building on ecological and feminist Marxism, environmental destruction can instead be attributed to the separation between the spheres of production and reproduction. Technological tools suitable for a socio-ecological transition must therefore be able to transcend this separation, becoming forces of re/production. Such a possibility will be evaluated here with regard to technologies of digital planning. These can, the article argues, become a sensing-apparatus and thereby reconnect production to its social and ecological basis. This addresses an important gap in the degrowth literature. Thus, Durand et al. (2023) note that almost all concepts of degrowth imply some kind of economic planning but do not spell out the concrete ways in which this would be realised. This gap is so important because it is the very notion of a planned transition that distinguishes degrowth from recession (degrowth by design instead of degrowth by disaster). Therefore, the question of feasibility of degrowth is also and maybe even primarily a question of the feasibility of democratic economic planning. This article aims to provide some basic consideration of this feasibility by reviewing approaches of digital democratic planning and participatory integrative planning. Thereby, it also hopes to contribute to easing the tensions between techno-optimistic and techno-pessimistic camps in the debate on the ecological crisis.