Resistance Is Futile

Abstract

Andrew Feenberg's political philosophy of technology uniquely connects the neo-Marxist tradition with phenomenological approaches to technology. This paper investigates how this connection shapes Feenberg's analysis of power. Influenced by De Certeau and by classical positions in philosophy of technology, Feenberg focuses on a dialectical model of oppression versus liberation. A hermeneutic reading of power, though, inspired by the late Foucault, does not conceptualize power relations as external threats, but rather as the networks of relations in which subjects are constituted. Such a hermeneutic approach replaces De Certeau's tactics of resistance with a critical and creative accompaniment of technological developments.

Seduced by Technology? How moral agency is mediated by the invisibility of everyday technologies

“…In sum, postphenomenology takes an unequivocally ethical stance. Whereas ANT promotes interrogation of the power effects of networks, postphenomenology retains a distinct emphasis on moral agency, and on how ethics can take place from within technological mediations (Verbeek, 2012(Verbeek, , 2013(Verbeek, , 2016. Postphenomenology departs from the social-technical symmetry of ANT in that technological mediation allows not only for possibilities for technologies to co-shape mediations but also for humans to appropriate or give meaning to mediating roles (Verbeek, 2006(Verbeek, , 2012(Verbeek, , 2014(Verbeek, , 2016.…”

Technological Mediation and Power: Postphenomenology, Critical Theory, and Autonomist Marxism

“…But we have already seen in our discussion of Verbeek that the attribution of such a preconceived sphere to classical critical theory is based on a straw man. Verbeek (2013) provocatively suggests that resistance, as configured in Feenberg's critical theory, is futile insofar as it adheres to a reificatory conceptualization of power, which Foucault was so intent on dismantling 12 ; Feenberg's dialectical conception of power tacitly reinstates the modern divide between humans and technology, in which technology is seen as threatening society in one way or the other, or put differently, in which technology and society are at struggle.…”

“…Under the label postphenomenology, Don Ihde (1990), Don Ihde and Evan Selinger (2003), and PeterPaul Verbeek (2005) have focused on the transformative dimension of technical artifacts on human experience, their efforts revolving around the concepts of technical mediation and relational ontology. Among their claims has been the discrediting of Marxist approaches, charging the latter with a lingering but inherent technophobia (Verbeek 2013). On their part, critical theorists have taxed postphenomenology with a disregard for the political implications of technology, or more generally, for not coming to terms with the power of technology (Feenberg 2009).…”

“…(…) One becomes a subject not by securing a place outside the reach of power but by shaping one's subjectivity in a critical relation to it^ (Verbeek 2011, p. 73). Verbeek (2013) claims that power should be understood as a web of relations that give meaning to the life-world of subjects, more akin to what Ihde calls macroperception, or what Wittgenstein calls forms of life, than to Nietzsche's will-topower. Capitalist power relations, while not explicitly thematized by Verbeek, are a subset of the many relations of power that constitute the current hermeneutic background that gives meaning to the technological life-world of subjects, and thus it produces the way we think, act, and perceive.…”

COVER STORYBeyond interaction

“…Instead of enabling people to realize their own intentions, technologies are a significant force themselves. One version of this dialectical approach is the framework of opposition versus resistance [4]. Technologies are then seen as overpowering or alienating forces, while human beings need to find ways to free themselves from them.…”