A term, in German Produktivkräfte, that is part of the technical jargon of the theory of historical materialism, as first formulated by Marx and Engels in The German Ideology of 1845-6, which can be translated both as productive forces and as productive powers. Unfortunately, Marx and Engels nowhere provide a list of these forces or powers and ambiguity still persists about the significance and correct usage of the term. In general, forces of production refers to means of production and labour power. And the term itself should be restricted to what materially facilitates the process of production. This does not resolve the more difficult and interesting question of whether historical materialism entails technological determinism. Nor does it fully explain why a contradiction between the forces of production and the relations of production is the dynamic of the historical process.
— John Halliday
