Technology, imagination and ecology in Murray Bookchin’s Works

Abstract

This paper aims to expose a number of reflections about technology, imagination and ecology which are present in the works by Murray Bookchin (1921-2006), who has formulated the concept of Social Ecology – a critical approach that has influenced social movements in several countries.  At first, we will discuss the notion of technical imagination developed by the author and alongside we will point out his criticism upon image over technics, which are prevailing in modernity and in Marx’s conception of labour. According to Bookchin, the study of technical images allows to perceive the presence of “epistemologies of domination” as well as “liberation” ones.  His goal is to invest in the construction of a technological perspective related to libertarian and ecological ideals.  In Bookchin’s conception, the construction of libertarian technologies is feasible only with the creation of social emancipatory institutions in a society plenty of freedom.  Therefore, his project intends to radically confront political technologies.  So, he also criticizes the scientific logic that inspires the belief of human superiority over nature. Against this idea, Bookchin tries to build the foundations of a theory that could incorporate moral values in order to reshape a modern insight of science and technics, taking into account the fluidity of Nature and the fluid nature of humankind.