This short book demystifies how the two systems of technology and capitalism work together and equips readers with practical tools to dismantle them and build a better world, bit by bit.
Our society is constantly made to serve the needs of two systems: technology and capitalism. Neither exists outside humans, but both are treated as above and beyond us. The Mechanic and the Luddite offers the critical tools needed to deconstruct these systems—how they work, whom they work for, and what work they do in our lives. With signature style and energy, Jathan Sadowski presents a provocative one-stop shop for understanding the political economy of technology and capitalism.
Each chapter breaks down key features of technological capitalism, offering sharp, synthetic, and authoritative analysis of topics like innovation, labor, data, and risk. It's not enough to know how the machinery of capitalism is put together and how its parts operate; we must also know whom the machines serve and when they should be taken apart, to be rebuilt for new purposes or destroyed for good. The Mechanic and the Luddite provides the political guidance needed to make these crucial decisions.
Jathan Sadowski is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University. He is author of the book Too Smart and host of the podcast This Machine Kills, both on the political economy of technology.
"Jathan Sadowski is one of the most incisive and important thinkers on technology and capitalism today. This urgent book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the deeper political economy that shapes the digital domain and, by extension, every facet of modern life."—Astra Taylor, author of The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart
"Smart, urgent, and as bluntly powerful as the titular Luddite's hammer, this book is required reading for anyone who seeks to understand how technology really gets made—and whom it's made to serve. Even better, it will give you the tools to fight back against the complex systems that have entangled the globe with digitized regimes of profit, exploitation, and oppression. The time for a thunderous new Luddite politics is now—and Sadowski's scathing, erudite, and accessible manifesto delivers."—Brian Merchant, author of Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion against Big Tech
"Sadowski has written a badly needed text that's arriving at exactly the right time. His crisp and active prose generously illuminates technology's relationship to flows of money and power and the whims of those who wield them. Reading The Mechanic and the Luddite feels like listening to a great friend excitedly telling you about a new discovery, letting you in on something interesting and important."—Meredith Whittaker, Chief Advisor and Cofounder, AI Now Institute
296 pp.5.5 x 8.5
9780520398078$24.95|£21.00Paper
Jan 2025