The notion that industrialization occurs in opposition to nature has deep roots in environmental thought. Drawing on Marx’s analysis of machine systems, this paper highlights a unique characteristic of industrial capitalism that is obscured by this technology/nature dualism. It argues that machinery is unique — not simply in its relation to nature — but in the way that it is nature. Where pre-industrial technologies are simply natural materials modified to meet human needs, machine systems constitute a force of nature whose ‘metabolism’ becomes increasingly central to the movement of nature as a whole. The productive force of industrial capitalism, then, is premised not on a technological foundation that is other than, or opposed to, what is natural; on the contrary, it is premised on a unique humanization of nature. The paper concludes by suggesting the value of this conceptual framework for understanding contemporary environmental problems and developing a transformative environmental politics.
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