First Exploratory Geographical and Social Maps of the Maker Movement

Authors

  • Massimo Menichinelli RMIT University http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9391-6653
  • Alessandra Gerson Saltiel Schmidt IAAC | Fab Lab Barcelona, Spain; AGS invest http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6618-5197

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2612-0496/9640

Keywords:

Maker Movement, geographical distribution, social network analysis, mapping, community,

Abstract

The Maker Movement emerged in the last decades through a mix of both bottom-up and top-down initiatives, promotions, communities and companies, informal experimentations and rigorous research projects. The result is a global system of design and making actors localized in community places of Maker Laboratories such as Fab Labs, Makerspaces, Hackerspaces, DIYBio Labs, Repair Cafes and so on. This contribution explores the first maps of the Maker Movement in terms of geographical distribution and of architecture of social networks of its Maker Laboratories and proposes a specific data analysis for each of these two directions. This article draws an overview of the social, local and global nature of the Maker Movement and of its laboratories, with the overall aim to provide spaces for democracy, participation and citizenship.

References

Alasdair, Allan. “3D Printing Using Genetically Modified Bacteria and Orange Juice.” Make: DIY Projects, How-Tos, Electronics, Crafts and Ideas for Makers, November 15, 2014. http://makezine.com/2014/11/15/3d-printing-using-genetically-modified-bacteria-and-orange-juice/.

Álvaro Sánchez, Sandra. “A Topological Space for Design, Participation and Production. Tracking Spaces of Transformation.” Journal of Peer Production, no. 13 (March 2019). http://peerproduction.net/issues/issue-13-open/peer-reviewed-papers/a-topological-space-for-design-participation-and-production/.

Anderson, Chris. Makers: The New Industrial Revolution. New York: Crown Business, 2012.

Bakırlıoğlu, Yekta, and Cindy Kohtala. “Framing Open Design through Theoretical Concepts and Practical Applications: A Systematic Literature Review.” Human–Computer Interaction 0, no. 0 (February 22, 2019): 1–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2019.1574225.

Bianchini, Massimo, Massimo Menichinelli, Stefano Maffei, Francesco Bombardi, and Alessandra Carosi. Makers’ Inquiry. Un’indagine Socioeconomica Sui Makers Italiani e Su Make in Italy. Milano: Libraccio Editore, 2015. http://makersinquiry.org/.

Blondel, Vincent D., Jean-Loup Guillaume, Renaud Lambiotte, and Etienne Lefebvre. “Fast Unfolding of Communities in Large Networks.” Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment 2008, no. 10 (October 9, 2008): P10008. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-5468/2008/10/P10008.

Bonvoisin, Jérémy, Tom Buchert, Maurice Preidel, and Rainer G. Stark. “How Participative Is Open Source Hardware? Insights from Online Repository Mining.” Design Science 4, no. 19 (November 21, 2018). https://doi.org/10.1017/dsj.2018.15.

Bosqué, Camille, Constance Garnier, and Matei Gheorghiu. “Livre Blanc· Panorama Des Fablabs En France, 2017—18.” Conseil Scientifique du Réseau Français des Fablabs (CS-RFFLabs), May 2019. http://www.fablab.fr/le-conseil-scientifique-du-rfflabs-a-le-plaisir-de-publier-son-livre-blanc-panorama-des-fablabs-en-france/.

Browder, Russell E., Howard E. Aldrich, and Steven W. Bradley. “The Emergence of the Maker Movement: Implications for Entrepreneurship Research.” Journal of Business Venturing 34, no. 3 (May 1, 2019): 459–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2019.01.005.

Delfanti, Alessandro. Biohackers: The Politics of Open Science. London: Pluto Press, 2013. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/5fq395w7.

Eberlein, Sven. “How to Start a Repair Café.” Shareable (blog), March 29, 2013. https://www.shareable.net/how-to-start-a-repair-cafe/.

Garber, Elizabeth, Lisa Hochtritt, and Manisha Sharma, eds. Makers, Crafters, Educators: Working for Cultural Change. 1 edition. New York, NY: Routledge, 2018.

Geier, Ben. “What Did We Learn From the Dotcom Stock Bubble of 2000?” Time, March 12, 2015. http://time.com/3741681/2000-dotcom-stock-bust/.

Gershenfeld, Neil. FAB: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop--From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication. New York: Basic Books, 2005.

Gershenfeld, Neil. “How to Make Almost Anything: The Digital Fabrication Revolution.” Foreign Affairs, 2012.

Hamalainen, Markko, and Jesse Karjalainen. “Social Manufacturing: When the Maker Movement Meets Interfirm Production Networks.” Business Horizons, THE GENERATIVE POTENTIAL OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGY, 60, no. 6 (November 1, 2017): 795–805. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2017.07.007.

Hatch, Mark. The Maker Movement Manifesto. Rules for Innovation in the New World of Crafters, Hackers, and Tinkerers. New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2014.

Himanen, Pekka. The Hacker Ethic and the Spirit of the Information Age. New York, NY, USA: Random House Inc., 2001.

Hirscher, Anja-Lisa, and Ramia Mazé. “Stuff Matters In Participation: Infrastructuring A Co-Sewing Café.” Journal of Peer Production, no. 13 (April 2019). http://peerproduction.net/issues/issue-13-open/peer-reviewed-papers/stuff-matters-in-participation/.

Holm, Eric Joseph Van. “Makerspaces and Contributions to Entrepreneurship.” Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, World Conference on Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 195 (July 3, 2015): 24–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.06.167.

Kemp, Adam. The Makerspace Workbench: Tools, Technologies, and Techniques for Making. Sebastopol: Make Books, 2013.

Lambiotte, R., J.-C. Delvenne, and M. Barahona. “Laplacian Dynamics and Multiscale Modular Structure in Networks.” ArXiv:0812.1770 [Physics], December 9, 2008. http://arxiv.org/abs/0812.1770.

Martin, Lee. “The Promise of the Maker Movement for Education.” Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER) 5, no. 1 (2015): 4.

Martinez, Sylvia Libow, and Gary S. Stager. Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom. Torrance, Calif.: Constructing Modern Knowledge Press, 2013.

Maxigas. “Hacklabs and Hackerspaces. Tracing Two Genealogies.” Journal of Peer Production, no. 2 (July 2012). http://peerproduction.net/issues/issue-2/.

Menichinelli, Massimo. “A Data-Driven Approach for Understanding Open Design. Mapping Social Interactions in Collaborative Processes on GitHub.” The Design Journal 20, no. sup1 (September 6, 2017): S3643–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2017.1352869.

Menichinelli, Massimo. “A Framework for Understanding the Possible Intersections of Design with Open, P2P, Diffuse, Distributed and Decentralized Systems.” Disegno – The Journal of Design Culture III, no. 01–02 (2016): 44–71. https://doi.org/10.21096/disegno_2016_1-2mm.

Menichinelli, Massimo. “Mapping the Structure of the Global Maker Laboratories Community through Twitter Connections.” In Twitter for Research Handbook 2015 – 2016, edited by Clement Levallois, Morgane Marchand, Tiago Mata, and Andre Panisson, 47–62. Lyon: EMLYON Press, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.44882.

Menichinelli, Massimo, and Alessandro Ranellucci. “Censimento Dei Laboratori Di Fabbricazione Digitale in Italia 2014.” Roma: Fondazione Make in Italy CDB, February 26, 2015. http://www.makeinitaly.foundation/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Censimento_Make_in_Italy.pdf.

Rosa, Paulo, Federico Ferretti, Ângela Guimarães Pereira, Francesco Panella, and Maximilian Wanner. Overview of the Maker Movement in the European Union. EUR 28686 EN. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2017. https://publications.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/5d8dfbab-ca80-11e7-8e69-01aa75ed71a1/language-en.

Sharp, Darren. “The Repair Café Foundation Builds Community by Fixing Things.” Shareable (blog), March 6, 2018. https://www.shareable.net/the-repair-cafe-foundation-builds-community-by-fixing-things/.

The Blueprint. “An Interview with Dale Dougherty.” The Blueprint, May 13, 2014. https://theblueprint.com/stories/dale-dougherty/.

Tocchetti, Sara. “DIYbiologists as ‘Makers’ of Personal Biologies: How MAKE Magazine and Maker Faires Contribute in Constituting Biology as a Personal Technology.” Journal of Peer Production, no. 2 (July 2012). http://peerproduction.net/issues/issue-2/.

Unterfrauner, Elisabeth, and Christian Voigt. “Makers’ Ambitions to Do Socially Valuable Things.” The Design Journal 20, no. sup1 (September 6, 2017): S3317–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2017.1352835.

Downloads

Published

2020-06-25

How to Cite

Menichinelli, M., & Gerson Saltiel Schmidt, A. (2019). First Exploratory Geographical and Social Maps of the Maker Movement. European Journal of Creative Practices in Cities and Landscapes, 2(2), 35–62. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2612-0496/9640