Peer production of Open Hardware: Unfinished artifacts and architectures in the hackerspaces

The dissertation adopts the theoretical framework of peer production to investigate the phenomena of open collaboration in hacker clubs through two case studies of small scale electronic artefacts. A critique of current theories of peer production is developed from a Science and Technology Studies point of view, arguing for the primacy of social constructivism over technological determinist narratives about the role of ICTs in late capitalism in general and hacker culture in particular. Properties of disruptive novelty and spontaneous emergence routinely attributed to ICTs – and by extension to the peer production practices of hackers – are approached sceptically with a historically informed ethnographic method that concentrates on continuities and contexts.La tesis adopta el marco teórico de la producción entre iguales para investigar los fenómenos de colaboración abierta en los clubs de hackers, a través de dos estudios de caso sobre artefactos electrónicos de pequeña escala. Se desarrolla una crítica de las teorías actuales sobre la producción entre iguales desde el punto de vista de los Estudios de Ciencia y Tecnología, defendiendo la primacía de la visión constructivista social por encima de las narrativas deterministas tecnológicas en el papel de las TIC en el capitalismo tardío, en general, y en la cultura hacker en particular. Nociones como la novedad perturbadora y la aparición espontánea, atribuidas habitualmente a las TIC y, por extensión, a las prácticas de producción entre iguales de los hackers, se tratan con escepticismo mediante un método etnográfico históricamente informado, que se concentra en las continuidades y contextos.La tesi adopta el marc teòric de la producció entre iguals per investigar els fenòmens de col·laboració oberta als clubs de hackers, a través de dos estudis de cas sobre artefactes electrònics de petita escala. S’hi desenvolupa una crítica de les teories actuals sobre la producció entre iguals des del punt de vista dels Estudis de Ciència i Tecnologia, defensant la primacia de la visió constructivista social per sobre de les narratives deterministes tecnològiques en el paper de les TIC en el capitalisme tardà, en general, i en la cultura hacker en particular. Nocions com la novetat pertorbadora i l’aparició espontània, atribuïdes habitualment a les TIC i, per extensió, a les pràctiques de producció entre iguals dels hackers, es tracten amb escepticisme mitjançant un mètode etnogràfic històricament informat, que es concentra en les continuïtats i els contextos.Societat de la informació i el coneixemen

Closure and stabilization in open source artefacts

Stabilization and closure are two central concepts in SCOT, from its very beginning in 1984. They have helped us to understand the result of the social construction of technical artefacts and their diminishing interpretive flexibility, by highlighting both its basic nature as a process in time and its final (relatively) irreversible condition. In the last three decades different scholarly contributions have continued to address this issue: some other mechanisms through which closure is achieved have been described and some new theoretical insights to the concept contours and implications have been provided. But besides these new ideas in technology studies, the studied technologies have also changed since 1984. Just one year before, in 1983, Richard Stallman launched the GNU project and gave rise to a new set of technical projects in software design epitomised by the Linux kernel in 1991. Not only open source computer programs have eventually cemented themselves in the industry as vibrant and viable alternatives but their model of peer production has been exported to other realms (such as encyclopaedic knowledge, as in Wikipedia) and more recently to hardware, particularly in shared machine workshops and hackerspaces. Peer production is a form of network-based voluntary cooperation aimed at contributing to a commons. Significant academic studies from different fields have begun to analyse this phenomenon in recent years and, though STS approaches have not been the most prominent, we think there are important theoretical issues at stake for technology studies in general, and for SCOT in particular. Contrary to standard industrial IT appliances, peer producers work a lot to fend off stabilisation, building functional parts (like loose couplings and Application Programming Interfaces) into technologies and organisations which serve to prevent closure. While these mechanisms for openness do also tend to stabilise, the resulting technologies are not exactly black boxes whose functional composition is rendered inaccessible to gaze, discourse and engineering. They can be understood as ¿unfinished artefacts¿. In this work we want to address how stabilisation, closure and black boxing are themselves socially constructed, deconstructed and reconfigured in this arena, both by innovative social and technical designs. Based on ethnographic study on hackerspaces in different European countries and in a large survey on Wikipedia usage by university faculty, we will also discuss some related and long-standing issues in technology studies and SCOT, such as public participation in technical design and the trade-offs between "professional" expertise and radically open "amateur" contributions

GEOPOLITICS IN THE INFRASTRUCTURAL IDEOLOGIES OF 5G

This paper explores how infrastructural ideologies function as tools in geopolitical struggles for dependence and independence of world powers. Meese Frith and Wilken (2020) suggest that controversies around 5G stem from infrastructural anxieties best examined in the framework of geopolitics. We build on this work by analyzing the emerging infrastructural imaginary of 5G in light of the changing global division of labor. Sociotechnical imaginaries (Jasanoff and Kim 2015) refer to the vision of technologies themselves, while ideologies refer to the totality of social relations, translating the objective reality of material conditions to subjective lived experience (Bory 2020). The Western imaginaries around 5G infrastructures reflect, deflect, translate and sublimate the infrastructural anxieties tied to the development and deployment of new network paradigms. Their controversial nature, contradictory content, and fragmented presentation is a necessary part of living through the trauma of lost historical agency on the part of Western superpowers. We engaged in code ethnography (Rosa 2019) of GSM, internet, and 5G technologies, as well as participant observation in the main standard-development organizations of the internet and 5G, and semi-structured interviews with equipment vendors and network operators. Our methodological assumption, taken from World Systems Theory (Wallerstein and Wallerstein 2004), is that the character and content of imaginaries and their underpinning ideologies creatively reflect the position of actors in the global division of labor. This paper contributes to the understanding of the role of infrastructures in geopolitical power tussles and straddles the fields of science and technology studies and international relations