What is a mode of production?

The mode of production includes the means of production
which are human labor and the actual tools, machinery and capital that is used to
produce goods. The mode of production also includes the relations of production which
are the relations between people and the objects they use to make goods as well as the
relations between the people themselves. In particular, these relations of production
are the ways social classes interact and how workers function with employers, or how
workers relate to those who own property and capital.

In
Marxism, understanding the way goods are produced and consumed requires an understanding
of how they are produced. These goods are first and foremost what we need to survive.
So, the mode of production describes how we produce the necessities of our own survival.
These goods also include things additional to food, shelter and clothing. This can
include art, toys, and really any commodity. Anything that is produced is therefore, a
part of our mode of sustaining life. Some of these goods are excesses or luxuries and
profit is the excess value of production.

We don’t just
produce goods. We produce our means of life which means that we reproduce our way of
life. This includes our economic system but more fundamentally, our day to day
activities. And Marx states that these day to day activities produce our ideas,
politics, religion and cultural identities. In Marxism, the means of production are
bound up with social interaction and culture. They are inseparable. In this context,
culture is not just a concept of elite art. In this context, culture is broader. It
describes shared attitudes and practices of a certain group, country or period of
history. Everyday doings (modes of productions) inform the way we continue to perform
those everyday doings and they inform the way we think about the world
(culture).

In this context, culture emerges from the means
of production. Or, as Marx said, consciousness emerges from
life.