Knowra Mode of production Mode of production A society’s organization of productive forces and the social relations through which production occurs. It describes how people combine tools, labor, resources, and property relations to produce and distribute goods.
Productive forces : The labor power, tools, technology, knowledge, and resources used to produce goods and services. They form the material capacity that a mode of production organizes.
Labor process : The purposeful activity through which people transform materials into useful products. It is the immediate activity organized by a mode of production.
Historical materialism : A theory that explains historical development through material conditions and changing forms of social production. Modes of production are the central historical units in this approach.
Asiatic mode of production : A contested Marxist category proposed for certain historical societies with centralized control of land and public works. It shows how Marxist classifications attempted to distinguish non-European historical formations.
Technological determinism : The view that technological development is the primary driver of social and historical change. It gives technology greater causal priority than the full social organization of production.
Relations of production : The social relations governing ownership, control, labor, and distribution in production. They specify who controls production and how its outputs are divided.
Property relations : The socially recognized rules governing access to, use of, and control over resources. They determine who can command productive assets and their outputs.
Karl Marx : A nineteenth-century philosopher and political economist whose writings founded Marxist analysis. He made modes of production central to his account of social history.
Feudalism : A social and economic system organized around landholding, dependent labor, and obligations between lords and tenants. Its land-based hierarchy contrasts with capitalist wage labor and ownership.
Structural functionalism : A sociological approach that explains institutions by their contributions to the persistence of a social system. It emphasizes systemic functions rather than conflicts rooted in production relations.
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