Under capitalism, every key we press, search we conduct, and prompt we write implicates us within a global web of exploitation that has created vast economic disparities. How, then, are we to understand and use technologies to write, think, argue, and teach about equitable futures for our world?

In response to this question, Anticapitalist Technology Design uses a political-economic frame to explore technology usage in writing programs as a site for equity work. Using an approach that combines classical Marxist ideas about political economy with contemporary advances in social justice theory, this book presents an intersectional approach to conducting anticapitalist work in rhetoric and composition around technology use.

Author Angela Glotfelter explores this work through the lens of anticapitalist technology design, a method that considers how inequitable ideologies are rhetorically encoded into new technologies and perpetuated through their usage. She applies this method to the case study of prototyping an equity dashboard for a first-year composition program, demonstrating the potential of anticapitalist technology design in practice.

Anticapitalist Technology Design brings together work from across the Marxist tradition, critical race theory, user experience, and transnational feminism, and will resonate with any one who want to navigate new technologies in economically and socially just ways.

Angela Glotfelter is assistant professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she explores the intersections of political economy, technology, and equity. She is a coeditor of Changing Conceptions, Changing Practices.