Beyond Growth: Technology, Work, and Time in the Construction of a Social-Ecological Rationality. A Dialogue between Gorz, Latouche, Illich, Sennett, and Winner

Abstract

This article proposes a critical and integrated analysis of the perspectives of André Gorz, Serge Latouche, Ivan Illich, Richard Sennett, and Langdon Winner to examine the profound contradictions of capitalist economic rationality and outline the foundations of an alternative social-ecological rationality oriented towards sustainability and autonomy. These thinkers, stemming from distinct intellectual traditions (social philosophy, ecological economics, institutional critique, craftsmanship anthropology, and philosophy of technology), converge on a shared diagnosis: contemporary societies are shaped by a productivist rationality that subordinates human autonomy, ecological sustainability, and cooperative practices to economic accumulation and technological determinism [1, 2].