CF PRESENTATION PAPER ABSTRACTS for conference session: “Are Karl Marx’s ‘Perpetuum Mobile’ and/or Max Weber’s ‘Machine State’ Dominating Labor Today? Why or Why Not?” (jointly sponsored by the ISA Research Committee on Comparative Sociology (RC20) and the ISA Research Committee on Economy and Society (RC02) of the ISA.)
Korea, Chonnam National University
Organization: XXI International Sociological Association (ISA) World Congress of Sociology,
Event: jointly sponsored by the ISA Research Committee on Comparative Sociology (RC20) and the ISA Research Committee on Economy and Society (RC02) of the ISA.
CALL FOR PRESENTATION PAPER ABSTRACTS
“Are Karl Marx’s ‘Perpetuum Mobile’ and/or Max Weber’s ‘Machine State’ Dominating Labor Today? Why or Why Not?”
Students, researchers, faculty members, and scholars working in sociology and related social sciences are invited to submit conference presentation paper abstracts for an open conference session entitled “Are Karl Marx’s ‘Perpetuum Mobile’ and/or Max Weber’s ‘Machine State’ Dominating Labor Today? Why or Why Not?”
The session will be part of the XXI International Sociological Association (ISA) World Congress of Sociology, from July 4–10, 2027, at Chonnam National University in Jeonnam-Gwangju Special Metropolitan City, Korea.
Karl Marx and Max Weber both thought about a time when machines would dominate labor. Marx wrote of a “perpetuum mobile” to describe the unceasing turnover of money by a machine of indestructible materiality, circulating a repeating and alternating flow of sale and purchase. Max Weber's "Sociology of Domination" theory warned that the power to coerce markets endlessly would cause endless conflicts. For Marx social change entailed communist revolution, while Weber, who was not a Marxist, worried that social change would be constricted to political coups to control the government's informational infrastructure. Social problems of alienation and rationalization, capitalist wealth and inequality, abuse of power and authority, coerced markets, money hording and social stratification are as alive today as when Marx and Weber set down theories about these social problems over a hundred years ago. What can we say about our AI dominated world using the concepts and writings of Marx and Weber today? Do their economic and historical comparative concepts help us understand our digital world? Why or why not?
Submit presentation abstracts by October 14, 2026, through the ISA Congress Submission System link below.
ISA XXI World Congress of Sociology Call for Abstracts:
https://www.isa-sociology.org/isa-events/xxi-world-congress-of-sociology/call-for-abstracts
Watch the 2025 ISA abstract submission tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_dRzY4k_o4
Current Session Participants:
Session Chair, Dr. Ece Kocabicak, The Open University
Co-Chair, Dr. Pravat Ranjan Sethi, Central University of Himachal Pradesh, India
Discussant, Proshant Chakraborty, University of Vienna, Austria
Session Organizer, Dr. Noel Packard, Independent Scholar, USA
Questions? Contact Dr. Noel Packard at npac825@aucklanduni.ac.nz.
Further information available via Sociology Group interview with Dr. Noel Packard on Marx, Weber, and machines dominating labour:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/414162540_An_Interview_with_Dr_Noel_Packard_- Karl_Marx_and_Max_Weber_on_Machines_Dominating_Labour
https://www.isa-sociology.org/isa-events/xxi-world-congress-of-sociology/call-for-abstracts
Noel Packard