Machine Systems and the Unique Nature of Industrial Capitalism

The notion that industrialization occurs in opposition to nature has deep roots in environmental thought. Drawing on Marx’s analysis of machine systems, this paper highlights a unique character-istic of industrial capitalism that is obscured by this technology/nature dualism. It argues that machinery is unique – not simply in its relation to nature – but in the way that it is nature. Where pre-industrial technologies are simply natural materials modified to meet human needs, machine systems constitute a force of nature whose ‘metabolism ’ becomes increasingly central to the move-ment of nature as a whole. The productive force of industrial capitalism, then, is premised not on a technological foundation that is other than, or opposed to, what is natural; on the contrary, it is premised on a unique humanization of nature. The paper concludes by suggesting the value of this conceptual framework for understanding contemporary environmental problems and developing a transformative environmental politics