In this new collection of essays, Andrew Feenberg argues that conflicts over the design and organization of the technical systems that structure our society shape deep choices for the future. A pioneer in the philosophy of technology, Feenberg demonstrates the continuing vitality of the critical theory of the Frankfurt School. He calls into question the anti-technological stance commonly associated with its theoretical legacy and argues that technology contains potentialities that could be developed as the basis for an alternative form of modern society.

Feenberg's critical reflections on the ideas of Jürgen Habermas, Herbert Marcuse, Jean-François Lyotard, and Kitaro Nishida shed new light on the philosophical study of technology and modernity. He contests the prevalent conception of technology as an unstoppable force responsive only to its own internal dynamic and politicizes the discussion of its social and cultural construction.

This argument is substantiated in a series of compelling and well-grounded case studies. Through his exploration of science fiction and film, AIDS research, the French experience with the "information superhighway," and the Japanese reception of Western values, he demonstrates how technology, when subjected to public pressure and debate, can incorporate ethical and aesthetic values.

Andrew Feenberg is Canada Chair in Philosophy of Technology in the School of Communication of Simon Fraser University. He is the author of Questioning Technology (1999) and Transforming Technology (2002).

"Feenberg’s stimulating and measuredly hopeful work argues that modern technology is not a deterministic system but rather is intertwined with social and cultural forces so that ‘alternative modernities’ are possible. He makes his case most effectively in a wonderfully eclectic array of empirical illustrations, including descriptions of the role of human subjects in changing the normative framework of AIDS research; the unanticipated expansion, by hackers, of France’s medium; and the rationalization of the Japanese board game Go."—Choice

"This book deals with grand theory. In the way that it deals with grand theory, however, it attempts a new and surely a highly desirable approach. Philosophical discussion is coupled to reflections on specific case studies. Every chapter on a specific theorist is followed by a case history. The notorious abstraction of philosophical discourse is thereby balanced and enriched by something altogether more down-to-earth and readily grasped."—American Journal of Sociology