Makerspaces and Peer Production
Kat Braybrooke, Adrian Smith · 2020
This chapter discusses the diverse dynamics of maker-spaces, and how encounters between makerspaces and institutional interests in particular are shaping what is possible. It addresses what is gained from the radical redistribution of prototyping capabilities in societies that makerspaces represent, and what is diminished. The chapter makes use of that literature and takes a broader perspective by considering makerspaces as situated in relation to social institutions. It aims to capture some of the ways institutional encounters in makerspaces anticipate and shape peer production futures while leaving space for the many contingencies that give each makerspace its own unique flavor. The chapter examines the many encounters that can emerge between makerspaces and other actors (from grassroots communities and entrepreneurs to flows of global capital), asking how these relations produce makerspaces as sites of possibility, tension, post-automation, and liberation.