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[bcbmb{b!CppltPost: Postnet Suite 47, Private Bag X1,

Fordsburg, South Africa, 2033

E-Mail: zababooks@zabalaza.netWebsite: www.zabalaza.net

The authoritarian and ecologically destructive jugger-

naut of state-supported big science and technology in thetwentieth century understandably fostered a deep pes-simism and suspicion towards science and technologyamong many in the green, anarchist, and libertarian leftmilieu. This reaction has been crystallized in the anti-civilization primitivist anarchism of John Zerzan. In op-position to this drift towards primitivism, this paper argues

that a vision of a liberatory and participative science andtechnology was an essential element of classical anar-chism and that this vision remains vital to the develop-ment of liberatory political theory and praxis today. Thepaper suggests that an anarchist model of science andtechnology is implicit in the knowledge-producing and or-ganizing activities of new social movements and is exem-

plified in recent developments in world, regional, and localsocial forums. j Beyond Primitivism:Toward a 21st Century AnarchistTheory & Praxis for Science

by Dr. Charles Thorpe

and Dr. Ian Welsh

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ENDNOTE

1. Kropotkin was a naturalist in all the relevant senses of the word. He was a biol-ogist and zoologist. He was also a naturalist in the epistemological sense of onewho believes that knowledge has to be based on the observation of natural phe-nomena. And he was what philosophers call an ethical naturalist, i.e. someonewho regards moral ideas or critieria as based on observable features of the world.

- FromAnarchist Studies, Volume 16, Number 1, 2008 -

Anarkismo.Net/article/9648

24 Beyond Primitivism

Beyond Primitivism:

Toward a 21st Century AnarchistTheory & Praxis for Science

by Dr. Charles Thorpe

and Dr. Ian Welsh

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peoples science forum which would challenge elite dominance of techno-scientificagendas and re-orientate scientific and technological inquiry towards far-reachingdemocratic and liberatory social change. In contrast to dominant engagement

agendas in science policy, what we are advocating is not a patching-up of the legit-imacy of current state-science regimes, but the grassroots development of forumsfor a peoples science presenting a radical challenge to the megamachine agendasof state-corporate science.

Dr. Charles ThorpeDepartment of SociologyUniversity of California, San Diego

Dr. Ian WelshSchool of Social SciencesCardiff University

Dr. Charles Thorpe & Dr. Ian Welsh 23

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