Mode of production

In the writings of Karl Marx and the Marxist theory of historical materialism, a mode of production (in German: Produktionsweise, meaning 'the way of producing') is a specific combination of:

Related Topics:
Karl Marx - Marxist - Historical materialism

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• productive forces: these include human labor-power, tools, equipment, buildings and technologies, materials, and improved land
• social and technical relations of production: these include the property, power and control relations governing society's productive assets, often codified in law, cooperative work relations and forms of association, relations between people and the objects of their work, and the relations between social classes.

Marx regarded productive ability and participating in social relations as two essential characteristics of human beings. Thus he writes for example that "Productive forces and social relations - both of which are different sides of the development of the social individual - appear to capital only as a means, and only means to produce on its limited basis. In fact, however, these are the material conditions to blow this basis sky-high." (Marx, Grundrisse. Frankfurt: EVA, p. 593)

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Mode of production: Significance of concept ►