Industry 4.0: The Digital German Ideology

  • Christian Fuchs University of Westminster, Westminster Institute for Advanced Studies & Communication and Media Research Institute
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v16i1.1010
Keywords: Industry 4.0, Industrie 4.0, Germany, German ideology, German digital ideology, Karl Marx

Abstract

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Especially in Germany, a vivid public debate about “industry 4.0” has developed in recent years. It advances the argument that industry 4.0 is the fourth industrial revolution that follows on from technological revolutions brought about by water and steam power (industrial revolution 1.0), electric power (industrial revolution 2.0), and computing/computerised automation (industrial revolution 3.0). In 1845/46, Marx and Engels wrote The German Ideology. 170 years later, we live in the time of digital capitalism that has its own peculiar forms of ideology. This paper argues that “industry 4.0” is the new German ideology, the digital German ideology.

Image: By ChristophRoser, AllAboutLean.com, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Author Biography

Christian Fuchs, University of Westminster, Westminster Institute for Advanced Studies & Communication and Media Research Institute

Christian Fuchs is a professor at the University of Westminster.  He is co-editor of tripleC: JCommunication, Capitalism & Critique. His research interests are: critical theory, social theory, political economy of media and communication, critical digital media studies. 
Web: http://fuchs.uti.at
Twitter: @fuchschristian

Published
2018-02-27
Issue
Vol 16 No 1 (2018)
Section
Reflections (Non Peer-Reviewed)

tripleC is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal (ISSN: 1726-670X). All journal content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Austria License.