In Hackerspaces: Making the Maker Movement, Sarah R. Davies examines the increasingly high profile of hacking and making, drawing on visits to hackerspaces and interviews with those involved in them. Attending to the multiple strands of hacking and questions regarding the commodification of the ‘hacker spirit’ as well as the movement’s diversity, this is an engagingly written book that addresses readers beyond a purely academic audience, writes Siún Carden

Carden, Siún

LSE Research Online

Book	Review:	Hackerspaces:	Making	the	MakerMovement	by	Sarah	R.	DaviesIn	Hackerspaces:	Making	the	Maker	Movement,	Sarah	R.	Davies	examines	the	increasingly	high	profile	ofhacking	and	making,	drawing	on	visits	to	hackerspaces	and	interviews	with	those	involved	in	them.	Attendingto	the	multiple	strands	of	hacking	and	questions	regarding	the	commodification	of	the	‘hacker	spirit’	as	well	as	themovement’s	diversity,	this	is	an	engagingly	written	book	that	addresses	readers	beyond	a	purely	academicaudience,	writes	Siún	Carden.Hackerspaces:	Making	the	Maker	Movement.	Sarah	R.	Davies.	Wiley.	2017.Find	this	book:	In	Hackerspaces:	Making	the	Maker	Movement,	Sarah	R.	Davieslooks	beyond	the	hype	about	‘the	New	Industrial	Revolution’	toaddress	what	happens	in	real-life	hackerspaces	and	why	hackingand	making	–	terms	Davies	and	many	of	her	respondents	useinterchangeably	–	are	having	such	a	high	profile	moment.	The	bookdraws	on	visits	to	hackerspaces	and	interviews	with	the	people	whouse	them,	nearly	all	within	the	USA.	Engagingly	written,Hackerspaces	addresses	more	than	a	purely	academic	audience,	inkeeping	with	the	‘hacker	spirit’	(71)	it	discusses.A	hackerspace	might	be	a	tiny	student	basement,	a	renovated	ex-factory	or	(arguably)	a	purpose-built	TechShop	or	FabLab,	but	in	anycase,	it	is	‘full	of	stuff’:	tools,	materials	and	projects	‘from	beerbrewing	systems	to	exquisitely	fine	jewellery	and	hacked	bikes	withglitterballs	attached	to	them’	(2).	The	materiality	of	hacking	andmaking	–	these	spaces,	these	processes,	all	this	‘stuff’	–	is	not	onlyimportant	to	people	who	engage	in	such	practices,	but	has	alsobecome	the	subject	of	excited	discourse	among	policymakers	andbusinesspeople	about	democratising	innovation,	revitalisingmanufacturing	and	the	rise	of	‘a	Nation	of	Makers’.As	Davies	points	out,	this	rhetoric	‘can	seem	rather	divorced	fromwhat	actually	goes	on	in	hackerspaces’	(7),	and	from	what	theirusers	are	interested	in.	The	strength	of	the	book	is	that	Daviescommunicates	the	affective	dimension	of	‘practices	streaked	through	with	joy’	(167)	and	the	optimistic	momentumof	even	modest	communal	attempts	to	change	the	world,	while	producing	a	clear-eyed	reflection	on	hacker/makercommunities	and	their	relationship	to	wider	society.	This	is	not	a	phenomenological	account	of	the	experience	ofmaking	(like	Trevor	Marchand’s	work	on	craft),	but	a	‘snapshot’	of	‘how	people	talk	about	hacking	or	making’	(42).LSE Review of Books: Book Review: Hackerspaces: Making the Maker Movement by Sarah R. Davies Page 1 of 3		Date originally posted: 2017-07-14Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2017/07/14/book-review-hackerspaces-making-the-maker-movement-by-sarah-r-davies/Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/Image	Credit:	(Chris	Radcliff	CC	BY	SA	2.0)While	mainstream	popular	culture	has	generally	represented	‘hacking’	as	green	code	flowing	down	computerscreens	while	young,	pale,	male	savants	bash	away	at	keyboards,	the	concept	is	applied	to	technologies	asdiverse	as	bio-fuels	and	phone	networks	and	to	communities	of	practice	including	textile	crafters	and	thereadership	of	Whole	Earth	Catalog	(see	Fred	Turner	2010).	The	common	threads	forming	what	Steven	Levy	callsthe	‘hacker	ethic’	are	sharing,	transparency	and	a	non-hierarchical	approach	to	learning	about,	accessing	andchanging	technology.	While	Levy’s	focus	was	computer	hacking,	traced	back	to	MIT	in	the	1950s,	Daviesstresses	the	‘multiple	streams	within	hacking	[…]	with	multiple	genealogies’	and	origin	myths	(30).	This	isimportant	given	the	book’s	focus	on	US	hackerspaces	rather	than	their	European	counterparts,	which	emergefrom	a	more	consciously	political	tradition.	The	idea	of	hacking	as	‘a	whole	life	activity	–	something	thattranscends	technologies	or	tools’		(31)	has	spread	far	beyond	self-defined	hacker	communities.	‘Lifehack’	wasnominated	as	an	Oxford	Dictionaries	Word	of	the	Year	in	2005	and	the	internet	(not	least	www.lifehacker.com	)supplies	an	endless,	exhausting	plethora	of	tips	for	perfecting	or	subverting	life’s	minutiae.Given	the	broad	applicability	of	a	hacker	‘mindset,	or	spirit,	or	ethos’	(71),	questions	of	definition	are	unavoidablebut	not	terribly	fruitful.	As	Davies	points	out,	the	discourse	around	hacking	and	making	presents	these	activitiesas	simultaneously	cutting-edge	and	primeval:	for	example,	the	idea	that	the	world	will	never	be	the	same	after	theadvent	of	digital	fabrication	is	set	alongside	the	notion	that	making	is	a	fundamental	human	experience	that	onlyrecent	generations	have	lost	touch	with.	Davies	avoids	getting	bogged	down	in	such	dichotomies	by	notconcentrating	on	whether	these	current	buzzwords	refer	to	anything	radically	new,	but	on	why	words	like	thisshould	have	a	buzz	around	them	at	all	at	this	point	in	time.Davies’s	central	argument	is	that	‘hackerspaces	and	makerspaces	represent	the	zeitgeist	in	some	way’,	cateringto	‘certain	sociocultural	cravings	and	norms’	(157).	These	include	cravings	for	community,	face-to-faceinteraction,	tactile	processes,	creativity	and	the	freedom	to	learn	outside	restrictive	structures	of	work	or	formaleducation.	Much	of	this	argument	relates	to	Robert	B.	Putnam’s	conception	of	social	capital,	Robert	A.	Stebbins’swork	on	serious	leisure	and	the	more	recent	surge	of	writing	on	craft	and	community	(eg	Sennett	2009;	Crawford2009;	Gauntlett	2011;	and	Thomas	and	Luckman	2018,	forthcoming)	in	a	world	where	‘it	is	all	too	easy	to	existsuspended	in	a	digital	miasma’	(160).LSE Review of Books: Book Review: Hackerspaces: Making the Maker Movement by Sarah R. Davies Page 2 of 3		Date originally posted: 2017-07-14Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2017/07/14/book-review-hackerspaces-making-the-maker-movement-by-sarah-r-davies/Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/Davies	connects	the	hackerspace/makerspace	phenomenon	with	the	twenty-first-century	resurgence	in	textilecrafts	and	all	things	handmade.	While	‘no	one	is	claiming	that	involvement	in	a	quilting	circle	is	going	to	prompt	anew	industrial	revolution’	(143),	to	those	familiar	with	the	online	world	of	non-digital	fabrication,	Thingiverse	looksrather	like	Ravelry	or	Pinterest	with	knobs	on.	There	are	many	areas	of	overlap:	for	example,	the	‘hacker	spirit’(71)	is	epitomised	by	projects	like	Amy	Twigger	Holroyd’s	ReKnit	Revolution.	However,	there	is	still	the	suspicionthat,	as	Seetal	Solanki	puts	it,	‘textiles	are	for	girls	and	materials	are	for	boys’.	Davies’s	analysis	of	hackerspacesin	the	context	of	‘The	New	Domesticity’	adds	depth	to	her	discussion	of	the	cultural	hunger	they	fulfil	and	of	theirlimitations,	not	least	around	diversity	and	solidarity.While	the	idea	that	anybody	can	hack	is	crucial	to	the	‘hacker	spirit’	(71),	the	belief	that	there	are	no	barriers	toparticipation	that	cannot	be	craftily	circumvented	with	the	right	mindset	results	in	communities	that	are	strangelyhomogenous.	With	the	exception	of	one	hackerspace	established	with	social	justice	as	its	explicit	mission,	Daviesfinds	little	internal	reflection	on	why	so	many	spaces	that	prize	accessibility	and	openness	are	so	male,	white	andmiddle-class.	A	hunger	for	‘community’	and	a	sense	that	the	world	needs	changing	does	not	equate	to	an	interestin	collective	political	action		–	after	all,	as	Davies	points	out,	‘one	of	the	pleasures	of	community	is	finding	‘‘mypeople’’	–	and	avoiding	the	rest’	(167).	If	hackerspaces	are	just	places	for	hobbyists	to	hang	out	(as	many	ofDavies’s	respondents	see	them),	this	may	not	matter	much.	On	the	other	hand,	it	does	matter	if	the	drivers	andbeneficiaries	of	the	next	industrial	revolution	look	so	much	like	those	of	the	first	one.Davies	suggests	that	there	is	an	increasing	tension	between	hacking’s	‘counter-cultural	roots’	(160)	and	its	roletoday,	when	the	ideals	of	the	‘hacker	spirit’	resonate	with	neoliberal	ideology	to	create	a	vision	of	the	hacker	asthe	‘ideal	citizen’	(164):	‘If	hackers	are	self-reliant,	proactive	agents	in	a	complex,	choice-filled	world,	then	we	areall	hackers	now’	(166).	As	hacking	becomes	more	commodified,	through	the	identification	of	hackers	as	a	marketfor	everything	from	kits	to	conferences	and	the	rise	of	companies	like	MAKE	Magazine,	and	as	‘governments	fundhackerspaces	and	business	gurus	laud	books	like	Chris	Anderson’s	Makers’	(166),	Davies	argues	that	suchissues	‘deserve	reflection	from	hackers	and	makers	as	well	as	from	observers	such	as	myself’	(167).Dr	Siún	Carden	is	a	Research	Fellow	in	the	Centre	for	Rural	Creativity,	University	of	the	Highlands	and	Islands.An	anthropologist,	her	current	research	interests	include	Shetland	textiles,	maker	cultures	and	the	application	ofthe	‘creative	industries’	concept	to	rural	contexts.	She	is	author	of,	among	other	things,	‘Cable	Crossings:	TheAran	jumper	as	Myth	and	Merchandise’	(2014)	Costume	48(2):	260-275	and	‘The	Aran	Jumper’	in	Design	Roots:Local	Products	and	Practices	in	a	Globalized	World,	eds.	Stuart	Walker	et	al,	Bloomsbury	Academic(forthcoming).Note:	This	review	gives	the	views	of	the	author,	and	not	the	position	of	the	LSE	Review	of	Books	blog,	or	of	theLondon	School	of	Economics.	LSE Review of Books: Book Review: Hackerspaces: Making the Maker Movement by Sarah R. Davies Page 3 of 3		Date originally posted: 2017-07-14Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2017/07/14/book-review-hackerspaces-making-the-maker-movement-by-sarah-r-davies/Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/

Book review: hackerspaces: making the maker movement by Sarah R. Davies

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