Complexity, Masculinity, and Critical Theory: Revisiting Marcuse on Technology, Eros, and Nature

Abstract

This article takes as its starting point Christian Fuchs's Internet and Society (2008), which deploys selected aspects of Herbert Marcuse's work in the construction of a critical theory of techno-social systems and informational capitalism. Going beyond Fuchs's emphasis on dialectics, I argue for a deeper engagement with Marcuse's distinctive combination of Marxian, psychoanalytic, and phenomenological theory in order to formulate a theoretical framework that includes embodied aspects of techno-social experiences. By reinterpreting the concepts of nature and Eros in Marcuse's critical theory in terms of complexity and self-organization, I suggest that his work can inform a renewal of critical theories of technology at a time when boundaries between the natural and social worlds are increasingly contested. At the same time, I argue that Marcuse's critique of technological rationality has a significant gendered dimension that is relevant to understanding how the complexity of nature gets taken up within contemporary techno-social systems. © The Author(s) 2011.