Neo-Luddism
The Real World of Technology by Ursula M. Franklin
... By contrast, a prescriptive technology breaks a process down into steps, each of which can be undertaken by a different person, often with different expertise. Franklin calls this specialization by process, as opposed to holistic technologies’ ...
added Oct 31, 2026
Read article →12 Do Artifacts Have Politics? | part of Technology and Society: Building Our Sociotechnical Future | MIT Press books | IEEE Xplore
While the traditional answer is to say that artifacts are value neutral—as in the saying "Guns don't kill people, people kill people"—Winner argues to the contrary, that artifacts are political.
added Oct 28, 2026
Read article →Rebels Against the Future: The Luddites and Their War on the Industrial Revolution: Lessons for the Computer Age by Kirkpatrick Sale | Goodreads
The Luddites are a very misunderstood group of people. Kirkpatrick Sale did a fantastic job. ... Informative and interesting book. Although dated, it still manages to have solid takeaways on the dangers of unrestricted industrialization. ... Ah Kirkpatrick Sale. I commend anyone who smashes a comput…
added Oct 25, 2026
Read article →The Megamachine: Lewis Mumford’s Vision of Large-Scale Social and Technical Control
Since ancient civilizations such as Egypt’s pyramids and Assyrian empires, through to modern industrial and technocratic capitalist societies, the megamachine symbolizes authoritarian centralization, extreme rationalization, and human submission to mechanisms of production, control, and surveillance…
added Oct 22, 2026
Read article →Jacques Ellul's Technological Society | Literature and Writing | Research Starters | EBSCOhost
Therein, technique has reached its own form of autonomy. According to Ellul, every technical operation, every actual application of technique in the real world, produces a "technical phenomenon."
added Oct 19, 2026
Read article →Tools for Conviviality - Wikipedia
Tools for conviviality. London: Calder and Boyars. ISBN ... 1 2 Samerski, Silja (2016). "Tools for degrowth? Ivan Illich's critique of technology revisited". Degrowth. Journal of Cleaner Production.
added Oct 17, 2026
Read article →1 Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change by Neil Postman
The first idea is that all technological change is a trade-off. I like to call it a Faustian bargain.
added Oct 14, 2026
Read article →The Manifesto - Dark Mountain
Written by Paul Kingsnorth and Dougald Hine, it marked a first attempt to put into words the ideas and feelings which led to Dark Mountain. Think of it as a flag raised so that we can find one another. A point of departure, rather than a party line. An invitation to a larger conversation that ...
added Oct 12, 2026
Read article →‘Why I am not going to buy a computer’ (notes on Wendell Berry) – Critical Studies of EDUCATION & TECHNOLOGY
The US novelist Wendell Berry is also a noted conservationist and small farmer. In his 1987 essay, he offers a passionate defence against the encroachment of computers into his writing process.
added Oct 9, 2026
Read article →Amish Community Not Anti-Technology, Just More Thoughtful : All Tech Considered : NPR
The Amish are perceived as shunning ... such as power tools and word processors, but only after determining they won't harm the community or disrupt family life....
added Oct 7, 2026
Read article →Inspiration from the Luddites: On Brian Merchant’s “Blood in the Machine” | Los Angeles Review of Books
Merchant’s book is a counterpunch: the Luddites and gig workers demonstrate how mindless automation might be stopped. Workers can “learn” to intervene at the local level. They can resist AI’s naturalization and their own dehumanization.
added Oct 4, 2026
Read article →The ‘boring phone’: stressed-out gen Z ditch smartphones for dumbphones | Young people | The Guardian
The Luddite Club, a group of New York schoolchildren who announced in December 2022 they were giving up their iPhones in favour of flip phones, would still need their smartphones, said Petter Neby, the founder of Punkt.
added Oct 2, 2026
Read article →Pushing Back Against Technology: The Rise of Neo-Luddism | Psychology Today
In recent years, however, the term has shifted from being used in a mocking or derogatory fashion to now describing someone who’s reasonably pushing back against newer technology—the internet, smartphones, social media, and now AI—being crammed down our throats at every turn. This new lifestyle choi…
added Sep 27, 2026
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