Technocentrism is a value system that is centered on
technology
Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...
and its ability to control and protect the
environment. Technocentrics argue that technology can address ecological problems through its problem-solving ability, efficiency, and its managerial means.
Specifically, these capabilities allow humans control over nature, allowing them to correct or negotiate environmental risks or problems.
Although technocentrics may accept that environmental problems exist, they do not see them as problems to be solved by a reduction in industry. Rather, environmental problems are seen as problems to be solved using rational, scientific and technological means. They also believe in scientific research. Indeed, technocentrics see the way forward for both developed and developing countries, and the solutions to environmental problems, as lying in scientific and technological advancement (sometimes referred to as
sustainopreneurship).
Origin of term
The term was claimed to have been coined by Seymour Papert in 1987 as a combination of ''techno''- and ''egocentrism'':
''I coined the word technocentrism from Piaget's use of the word egocentrism. This does not imply that children are selfish, but simply means that when a child thinks, all questions are referred to the self, to the ego. Technocentrism is the fallacy of referring all questions to the technology''.
However, references to technocentrism date back well before this (see, for example and).
Among the earliest references cited by O'Riordan in his book "Environmentalism" (which includes extensive discussion of ecocentric and technocentric modes of thought) is that of Hays in 1959 where technocentrism is characterised as:
''The application of rational and 'value-free' scientific and managerial techniques by a professional elite, who regarded the natural environment as 'neutral stuff' from which man could profitably shape his destiny''.
Technocentrism vs ecocentrism
Technocentrism is often contrasted with
ecocentrism. Ecocentrics, including
deep ecologists, see themselves as being subject to nature, rather than in control of it. They lack faith in modern technology and the bureaucracy attached to it so they maintain responsibility for the environment. Ecocentrics will argue that the natural world should be respected for its processes and products and that
low-impact technology and
self-sufficiency
Self-sustainability and self-sufficiency are overlapping states of being in which a person, being, or system needs little or no help from, or interaction with others. Self-sufficiency entails the self being enough (to fulfill needs), and a sel ...
is more desirable than technological control of nature.
Fundamentally, ecocentrism maintains that concerns for the natural environment should dominate the needs of humankind, pitting it against the
anthropocentric
Anthropocentrism ( ) is the belief that human beings are the central or most important entity on the planet. The term can be used interchangeably with humanocentrism, and some refer to the concept as human supremacy or human exceptionalism. From a ...
position of technocentrism, which pushes the needs of humans at the forefront even at the expense of everything else.
There are theorists who claim that despite their incompatibilities, technocentrism and ecocentrism can be integrated into one framework because they share several similarities. For instance, it is proposed that technocentrism can facilitate ecocentrism, particularly in the area of policy-making, through shared goals and shared recycled resources. There is also the case of the so-called ''sustaincentric worldview'', which was developed as a product of ecocentric and technocentric views.
See also
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Biocentrism
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Deep ecology
Deep ecology is an environmental philosophy that promotes the inherent worth of all living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs, and argues that modern human societies should be restructured in accordance with such idea ...
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Earth liberation
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Ecocentrism
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Ishmael (Quinn novel)
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Ecofeminism
Ecofeminism integrates feminism and political ecology. Ecofeminist thinkers draw on the concept of gender to analyze relationships between humans and the natural world. The term was coined by the French writer Françoise d'Eaubonne in her 1974 ...
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Ecological humanities
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Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of green ideology and politics, ecolog ...
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Gaia hypothesis
The Gaia hypothesis (), also known as the Gaia theory, Gaia paradigm, or the Gaia principle, proposes that living organisms interact with their Inorganic compound, inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a Synergy, synergistic and Homeostasis, s ...
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High modernism
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neo-Luddism
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Sentiocentrism
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Technogaianism
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Fordism
Fordism is an industrial engineering and manufacturing system that serves as the basis of modern social and labor-economic systems that support industrialized, standardized mass production and mass consumption. The concept is named after Henry ...
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High modernism
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New Frontier
The term ''New Frontier'' was used by Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy in his acceptance speech, delivered July 15, in the 1960 United States presidential election to the Democratic National Convention at the Los Angeles Memo ...
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Post-scarcity economy
Post-scarcity is a theoretical economic situation in which most goods can be produced in great abundance with minimal human labor, so that they become available to all very cheaply or even freely.
Post-scarcity does not mean that scarcity ha ...
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Scientism
Scientism is the belief that science and the scientific method are the best or only way to render truth about the world and reality.
While the term was defined originally to mean "methods and attitudes typical of or attributed to natural scientis ...
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Technological utopianism
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Techno-progressivism
Techno-progressivism, or tech-progressivism, is a stance of active support for the wikt:convergence, convergence of technological change and social change. Techno-progressives argue that technological developments can be profoundly empowerment ...
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Progress
Progress is movement towards a perceived refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. It is central to the philosophy of progressivism, which interprets progress as the set of advancements in technology, science, and social organization effic ...
References
External links
*{{Wiktionary-inline
Green politics
Environmentalism
Ideologies